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– Bernd Debusmann is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. –

Four days before Barack Obama was sworn into office, a prominent radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, told his conservative listeners that a major American publication had asked him to write 400 words on his hopes for the Obama presidency.

“I…don’t need 400 words,” he said, “I need four: I hope he fails.”

The remark set the tone for a steady stream of unbridled and often bizarre criticism from Limbaugh and like-minded radio and TV commentators, several of them working for Fox News, the network owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Obama responded four days after his inauguration, telling a group of Republican congressmen they needed to break away from a mindset of confrontation.

“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”

What followed should have helped the new administration to reflect on the wisdom of singling out a media critic. But it didn’t. Limbaugh promptly portrayed himself as a man of such pivotal importance that the president of the world’s only superpower needed to pay personal attention to his tartly-worded opinion.

The controversy over his ill wishes for the president caused, as he put, his ratings to go “through the roof,” a reassuring development for a man who makes $38 million a year under an eight-year contract that runs through 2016. The score of that early skirmish: Limbaugh 1, Obama 0.

The White House is now engaged (as in war, not diplomacy) with an even bigger target, Fox News, to the evident delight of Murdoch. “There were some strong remarks coming out of the White House about one or two of the commentators on Fox News,” he told the annual shareholders’ meeting of News Corp, the media conglomerate that includes Fox. “And all I can tell you is that it has tremendously increased their ratings.”

His cheerful observation came a few days after the administration switched from occasional counter-attacks to full-scale offensive. Anita Dunn, the White House Communications director, fired the first rocket in mid-October by saying Fox News was not a legitimate news organisation but operated as a research and communications arm of the Republican Party.

The president himself stayed out of the fray this time but two of his closest aides, Senior Advisor David Axelrod and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel followed up with similar comments on television news shows. Axelrod went as far as to urge other news organisations not to treat Fox News as a legitimate news outfit. Fox denies its news coverage is slanted and says critics fail to understand the difference between reporters and commentators.

SHOCK VALUE AND SHOW BUSINESS
Past performance is no guarantee of future results but it is probably a safe bet that the controversy will be good for the Fox bottom line – and that the commentators with the most provocative attacks on Obama will benefit most, a pattern reflected by the network’s third quarter results.

They showed Fox News as the dominant cable news organisation. It drew an average 2.25 million prime time viewers (a 2 percent increase over the previous year) – more than twice the combined number of its nearest competitors, CNN and MSNBC, both of which suffered considerable audience declines.

The shows by Fox’s top conservative commentators all showed steep increases, but none more than Glenn Beck (up almost 90 percent), who said of Obama on a Fox show in July: “This president has exposed himself as a guy, over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people and white culture.”

Commentators aiming for shock value are not in the business of context, such as pointing out, for example, that Obama’s mother was white and that he had close and cordial relations with his white grandparents. Obama was visibly shaken when his white grandmother, Madelyn Dunham died, a day before he was elected president.

Beck’s “hatred for white people” remark prompted several advertisers to abandon his show but that didn’t hurt the bottom line. A Fox spokeswoman said at the time that offended advertisers had shifted to other Fox programmes so there was no revenue lost.

Which raises the question why Fox News, which effectively functions as the voice of the opposition, has been more of a commercial success than its competitors which feature liberal, pro-Obama commentators and give a platform to people who want the president to succeed?

After all, he won the elections with the votes of Americans who bought into his reform agenda. And according to a Washington Post/ABC poll to mark his ninth month into the presidency, his job approval rating stands at 57 percent and only 20 percent of the country now consider themselves Republican, the lowest percentage in 26 years.

Even on the most hotly disputed aspect of Obama’s health care plan, the public option seen as socialism by conservative commentators, a majority of Americans are coming out in support of the president, according to that poll.

So why is the White House acting as if right-wing critics pose a mortal danger? Thin-skinned sensitivity to criticism? John Batchelor, a conservative radio show host, has a different suggestion: ignorance.

“The White House war on Fox,” he wrote on the website The Daily Beast, “shows its ignorance of the network’s true purpose: show business. And Team Obama is giving Murdoch just what he wants.”

Mr. Obama is simply using his celebrity to stir up a little controversy in order to drive up Newscorp’s earnings as part of his larger plan to stimulate the economy. This is all part of the plan, so please do not submit any more commentary suggesting that our wise and erudite leader may possibly have erred.

It used to be the presidency of the United States of America was treated with respect. Limbaugh has no respect. Fox News has shown it has no respect. Fox News and Limbaugh are representing to children the worst side of being adults. Actually, children behave better than these adults. Look inside yourself and decide if you wish to behave as a child or as an adult, whether you or Republican or Democrat.

I’d say that all news networks in the US are pretty horrible. They all have their agendas, biases, and official lines of reporting. I do like Reuters as it seems more objective than the others. But just as the liberal media did with Bush bashing why would it be unfair for conservative media to bash Obama. The viewership for Fox is higher, because it’s normal that when the curent president is a liberal, the liberal media won’t report objectively on him. Same is true of conservative media and Bush… The sad part is that current administration is so vocal about their dissatisfaction with Fox. It makes them look petty. Especially during present times when people are eagerly expecting results, from a president who promissed so much.

I think FOX has a hit a nerve but many of their fans aren’t happy with any government intrusions and view Rep and Demo as two sides of the same coin. Politicians bought and paid for by corporations. But the “Conservative” talk shows etc. are nothing but opportunistic business ventures sucking the cash out of emotional voters and unfortunately racists. Some in the open but many in the closet.

I think you are reading this incorrectly. The administrations approach in dealing with Fox is to utilize them to further portray the republican party as completely out of sync with the American people. The more the base of the republican party is engaged with Fox and their exploits the further they are seen as radical to the vast majority of the American population. People who are angry and hateful will listen attentively to those who preach accordingly. CNN delivers news, Fox delivers the right wings opinions. The more they do it, the better for democrats, pure and simple.

I supported Obama during the election by volunteering and donating money to his campaign. I still support him and wish him all the success in the world. But, I do admit to a guilty pleasure, and that is watching Mr. Beck’s show. If you can keep from yelling at the TV it is comic relief of the highest order. I especially like it when Herr Professor Helf-Becked resorts to his chalkboard to make a convoluted point with flow charts, diagrams, and historical references taken out of context. To follow his “logic” is to watch a deeply flawed and troubled mind at work. But, one must always bear in mind that Beck is a Mormon convert, and that is, of course, looney tunes from start to finish.

Ya know,……all I hear nowadays is who’s against that and who’s for this – and they try to back up the percentages they want on each side by “polls”.
All I know, is that I’m a conservative Christian who believes that gay marriage is immoral, abortion is murder, and that the government is undergoing a socialist takeover. And yet, no one has ever asked me to take a poll – not the White House, not the democratic party, not CBS, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, NBC – nobody.
I don’t think they want to know what I’m thinking.
Maybe it scares them…

This just goes to show what a bunch of rookies Barry and his boys are. Limbaugh and Murdoch out maneuver him time and time again, and they’re only entertainers. Think what the other world leaders are doing to him (it’s pretty obvious). But what can you expect from a community organizer with no real experience.

I love how democrats stand on their soapboxes about the freedom of speech until someone directs criticism against them. Those that want Fox news to be treated as an enemy to the government are saying that people who disagree with Obama have no right to say anything. The great thing about being an American citizen with an IQ over 20 is that I can figure out what is boloney. I do not agree with everything conservatives say but yet I share their same fears. I want Obama to succeed and be the best President we have ever had, but I disagree with the agenda he has so it will hard for him to succeed in my mind. Democrats demanded the right to be heard when they were the minority. Now that Republicans are the minority I think the Democrats should remember that.

Oops! If a show that garners less than 1% of the population in primetime viewership is considered the highest rated show than I think it speaks more to society at large rejecting the idea that any of these shows ( pick a network) have much important to say. They have become facilitators of vicariously releasing anger through someone else’s rant. The republican extremists ( as a former republican, I call them Vichy republicans) are out of power so they are currently the most angry, hence Fox has gotten the most viewers as of late.
The more cynical side of me thinks the media has put up a side show of extremism for ratings and avoided meaningful debate on issues such as why we are making China so strong and weakening ourselves. It’s almost as though they do not want to be too critical for fear of losing access to China. Shipping jobs, technology, hard currency is all well and good when the country is ideologically similar or an ally. But we seem to have made the business of America off-shoring and making China strong. China imprisons people for life for political descent for crying out loud. Our country does some pretty egregious things, but at least a lot of us know not to condone it. Corporate America and the government are chasing short term gains over long term weakening and potentially destroying of a very positive way of life. Extremism flourishes when fear is highest, government. What the heck do we stand for as a country anymore anyway? We are being divided and conquered. If what Matt Taibbi writes in his column for rolling stone is true – we truly are missing a much bigger an far more sinister picture. There, now I got my angry rant in.

The problem is that organizations such as Fox News hide behind the guise of ‘journalism’, a presitgious title awarded to those who provide objective ‘news’ content. Instead, many of those pundits who provide those great revenue streams of recent to Fox are not really journalists, and that needs to be presented to viewers, otherwise it is just slander combined with utmost unprofessionalism, further discrediting cable news as a whole. That is why I generally support the White House in its criticism of Fox as a whole, not because I simply see two opposing factions but rather on a professional level. By the way, the rise of these pundits shows an extreme disconnect between citizens of education and those of not.

Not to worry the kids are playing their PS3. Anyway for years the media bashed the past presidents. Fox has an opinion which is perfectly legitimate albeit a little different from the so called main stream media which hardly behaves like media anyway. Fox is doing what it is doing – why is the President involved with one solo media group and why is it so important to him and his staff to give importance to Fox. At the moment looks like Fox is benefitting from the White House bashing.

Democrats, in general, Want To Be Liked. The idea that someone might disagree with them or *gasp* not like them is a concept democrats are simply not comfortable with. Of course, the proper response to Limbaugh and his ilk is simply to Ignore Them. Their audience is a much smaller percentage of the population than they’d like to suggest. That audience most likely didn’t vote for Obama, and nothing Obama could say would get them to vote for/like him. Simply triage them, and forget them.

While the Republican Party’s numbers are dropping, the Democrats are not getting all of them. Many of us have seen the light and are becoming libertarians or independents. It’s quite obvious that the Republicans and Democrats are merely two sides to the same PROBLEM.

For years, Republicans have been on the attack — against the media in general, and a handful of outlets in specific. GOP leaders and officials have boycotted news outlets they don’t like; they’ve attacked networks they believed to biased; and they’ve routinely snubbed those whose coverage they disapproved of. The last White House went after NBC News, even from the briefing room’s podium. Republican disgust for the media has been a staple of American politics for what seems like forever. It has been accepted practice for so long, no one has ever made a big deal of it. Until now.

And yet, when the Obama White House dares to offer mild and accurate criticism, the political establishment not only throws a fit to defend a sorry excuse for a journalistic enterprise, it embraces a nonsensical comparison to totalitarianism.

Rasmussen reports has the President’s approval rating below 50%. He has a -13 on the indext for strongly approve, strongly disapprove, and he has a -5 on a general approve, general disapprove. I would say that reuters is picking and choosing which poll to use so that Obama can be shown in a good light. It has already been proven that the poll he is referencing is highly weighting their poll to the opinions of more democrats and blacks than republicans and independents. In other words, they are asking more people that they are sure are going to like the president than those that are reflected across the general population.

Whether or not you are a Democrat or Republican, Obama was elected by the people as the President of the United States. You dont have to like the man to respect the office he holds. Its sad to see that America has become this disrespectful for the highest office our country has. I didnt like G.W Bush, but as a member of the U.S. Military I served at his behest without questioning his orders. I may not have agreed with him, but I didn’t disrespect him or disregard his agenda.

“Look inside yourself and decide if you wish to behave as a child or as an adult, whether you or Republican or Democrat.” I did, and Im Republican, not because I act like a child not because I disrespect a president, but because I have ideals. Yes, maybe FOX News and Rush are crude at some points, but they have more viewers than all the other top news agencies in the States! Obama can not just choose what is and what is not a news group, and boycott them. Yes, he is the president, but he must interact with both sides of the media. Imagine former Pres. Bush said “Well MSNBC is not that kind to me, so Im not going to let them interview me.” Democrats and 1st amendment types would be up in arms, and for good reason! MSNBC, CNN, and FOX all deserve equal opportunity, to talk and interview with the president, that’s how you get different perspective. I myself, watch CNN, BBC, MSNBC, I read the Economist, and I form my ideas, and they make me Conservative. Also your first statement “It used to be the presidency of the United States of America was treated with respect. Well that ended when Left wingers bashed Bush, for every single breath he took. So please spare us, your one sided argument.

On another note, I enjoyed reading this article, thank you Bernd Debusmann.

Your piece totally ignores the fact that CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and MSNBC are all blatetly liberal and cheerlead for the administration. Perhaps people watch Fox because it’s the only place the “other point-of-view” can be found. One must conclude that most people place more credibility in FOX.

It’s interesting that during the Bush administration anyone that said anything not in support for the President was “an enemy of the state”, as Fox anchors loved to say. But now those same people believe that if you want the President to fail then your a Patriot. Pure politics.

None of our politicians desrves any respect. When they start acting in the interests of the Americian people instead of their own, then they deserve respect. In short, I don’t own Obama respect just because he is the president. Once he starts acting presidential, then he can have my respect. Until then, I view him as the next corporate spokesman.

What’s your answer to the sub-headline’s question: Why is the White House acting as if right-wing critics pose a mortal danger? Columnist Bernd Debusmann looks at the administration’s battle with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.

cindy—it seems that obama is the child here. why would he act like a two year old a go after someone who
is showing what obama is really about. what does republicans or democrats have to do with it?
obama is pulling a temper tantum ( two year old )
when he doesn’t get his way. what’s up with the chamber
of commerce now ? cindy—think before you talk.

For eight years liberal news droned on about how bad Bush was. Now that the conservatives are doing the same thing the liberals are acting like a kid who can dish it out, but can’t take it. President Obama should act like a president and not a child, his actions have demeaned his position.

You complain about the office of the presidency not being treated with the respect it deserves? Where were you during the Bush years? I can’t recall how many times I heard or saw “F*** Bush” or similarly worded pejoratives. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, you can’t stand it and believe it to be some new development by the evil, horrendous right wing? Not bloody likely, sir.

The best way to treat Republican commentators like that is to simply make sure they are marginalized as exactly what they are : outrageous, rude, flambouyant, prejudiced showmen out for dollars, who claim to be Republicans and representing the far right.

Obama’s power base has never been about them and the stuff they spew. His appeal has been among the left, because that’s where the Democratic Party’s power is, and the centrists who took a look at the stuff the Republicans were spouting and had done, and went with the better choice.

Obama’s job is to appeal to the Centrists, because they are the people who decide the election. Ignore the right, ignore the left, do the job to the best of his personal ability and integrity, and he’ll get re-elected by the real people who ignore the hyperbole and concentrate on what he’s trying to do and how he’s doing it.

I love to hear Obama supporters talk about the loss of respect for the president in this country.

For the last 8 years, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC the NY times and many other portrayed GW Bush as an incompetent clown.

Keith Olbermann on MSNBC makes a living (in between football seasons) with a segment called “the worst in people” Now that’s uplifting isn’t it? And meanwhile he nightly rants like a Hitler in anti GW and Republican speech all for a sultry $17M/yr. Not bad for coming from an agricultural school.

Hollywood personalities constantly criticized GW and Producers made films about GW that portrayed him as a total buffoon and an idiot.

Now Obama gets elected, their guy, and they want partisanship on all issues and well “can’t we all just get along “mentality? They don’t get it so now the administration and many others want to shut down the voice of conservative thought, the only one left – FOX?

Is this Russia? Should we have controlled media? No one in American wants to be told how to act and what to think. So why is it OK to shut down the perceived opposition, just because they don’t like the message that they send….after all..it’s not good for business…especially if you want to get your guy elected for a second term.

That ain’t gonna happen.

Read a bumper sticker which sums it up nicely: “I’ll give your president the same respect you gave mine”

Be honest, and not a hypocrite. You want respect? Extend respect! Even if you have a differing opinion.

I guess this past year was the first year to vote for Cindy from Indy, or else you just don’t remember that it used to be that the president acted in a manner worthy of respect. Respect is earned, never deserved, Cindy. This guy is the most leftist, socialist person to ever serve in the white house. This is the guy who is such an indecisive coward that he voted “present” 60% of his entire time in the senate. He has never led or managed anything. He has lied more and spent more in 9 months than Bush did in 8 years, with 2 wars, 911 and Katrina. This is the same guy who campaigned on transparency and non-partisanship, and lowering the national unemployment rate. in case you haven’t noticed, the national average is above 10%. While this narcisistic moron flies around the world to Denmark to get the Olympics in chicago, to repay his cronie friends, thousands more of our US troops are dying in Afghanistan. This guy doesn’t deserve anyone’s respect.

lol, fox news isn’t treating the presidency with respect?? all other presidencies have had all the respect of the news media. no one has ever bashed a president before on TV? really? are you an idiot or just a left wing extremist? Wake up, its been happening since George Washington, it’s called freedom of speech!! What the heck do you think they did to George Bush for 8 years? Yeesh, I remember 24/7 bashing of that guy, not like I care, he was more of a liberal anyway…

It could be that the current administration paid attention when the previous administration was sending out it’s spin. When you repeat the same message over and over again it has a tendency to be construed, eventually, as fact. This worked very well for the Bush White House: it got us the Iraq war and other atrocious things.
The kind of vitriol being broadcast by Fox could have that kind of effect even though it is being touted as ‘entertainment’. It’s not paranoia or ‘thin skinned sensitivity to criticism, it’s knowledge of how spin and repeated messages work.

I agree Cindy. I can’t believe the way people are acting. The president isn’t in office even a year yet, but people are already passing judgement like he’s finishing out his second term…Apparently alot of people forgot to pay attention in government class in school. I am a republican, but i am going to give the guy a shot before i act impatiently and condemn him prematurely. People seem to forget that the president isn’t a dictator, he can’t just say this is what i want to do and its done. We have congress who is his check and balance. Its still way early for critism. Realistically it would take years before you see the majority of the impact of his decisions. So if you need to criticize dont forget congress. As far as Fox news goes, its evident (even to someone not involved in politics)that they are biased towards a particular party. Blind support for one side or the other is very irresponsible, especially when we need everyone in washington to be working together for “us”, the people who put them there. I think washington’s battle with fox stems down to the fact that they are an opinion based agency and washington doesn’t want people (some of who only get their news from tv, and possibly one network)to take these opinions and translate them into hard facts. Fox calls it news but it is in fact opinion based. News should be…only news.

That is absurd! Once again another comment is made to polarize people as one side or the other. So if I support Rush, I’m now a child? The logic is flawed. Ignore any tendencies to name call or label. Try focusing on the issues and support them with evidence rooted in logic, and you will find why people are flocking to Fox. Most people are much more complex than a label, and deserve the respect of free speech.

I’m shocked to see that this is worth printing. After 8 years of Bush bashing from every Tom, Dick, and Harry – except Fox News – its now shocking that the opposition is opposing Obama? I agree that they are often times pushing too hard, but please don’t lump anyone that opposes Obama in a group of radicals.

Maybe Glenn Beck’s audience is there for the show business. Let’s not underestimate the American public’s ability to discriminate between lucid thought and mad raving. And maybe the White House wants more Americans to appreciate the difference.

When will we learn. First, the average viewer of FOX (working class republican) is must likely the most hurt by the station’s misinformation by the continuance of the status quo. Particularly, families with members in the military, manufacturing, and/or any of the trades. Next, Democrats that believe they know what is right for everyone are most likely to be disconnected from reality- a reality that cannot be gained by conversation or research, but rather must be gained from experience. This applies to all, regardless of race, that are socially disadvantaged. Assuredly, a the two part system is a failure. I hope one that will eventually be undone. In the interim, real political reform must be made (e.g. only public funds for elections, real consequences for misdeeds, etc.).

I find it ludicrous that anyone who listens to Rush Limbaugh and possibly Fox News would take them at there word? Most know that it’s show business…but my guess is that Obama wants them out in the open for people to see for who they are. Showmen and women. The sad thing is that the American culture has gotten to this point. That someone like Limbaugh…who probably isn’t that way in real life…does have so much voice for the republican party. He does it for ratings. No truth. But ignorant people believe what they hear because he’s on the radio. He must be important! NOT. On the flip side, I think it best to take a wait and see attitude toward this administration before making any kind of praise or “Obama bashing”! It’s just too early.
And the only reason some are opposed to health care reform is because it will reflect in their pocket book! They one’s who are making a killing don’t want it to change.

A simple standard that the White House might adopt is only to acknowledge as news organizations those “entities” that actually have take the time and exercise the responsibility to issue “retractions” of erroneous news stories. If that simple standard were applied– having the responsibility to publicly correct stories where the facts were shown to be “inaccurate”–ahem–we could fix a lot of this nonsense.

I believe most people, including Glenn Beck, respect the office of the President of the United States. Unfortunately, I believe our President lacks what is needed to be respected as The Leader of the Free World. He demonstrates that daily on the new shows. He comes of as our Huckster –in Chief. And the rest of the world laughs at us as much as they did with Bubya.

Maybe the President should give up his teleprompting ways and just get to work bringing parties together to resolve our countries woes. Instead, he and his staff choose to act like Chicago thugs and wield their corruption on the US taxpayers.

People need e reason to trust our government. Team Nobama’s current behavior will divide the country further and deepen the People’s distrust of all in power today.

And to correct Mr. Debusman, Rush Limbaugh said he wanted Obama’s plans and policies to fail. But leave it to the press to get everything wrong when it suits their purpose.

People have been murdered because of the rhetoric on fox news. Please realize that a lot of Americans think that professional wrestling is real. They will violently defend their belief in what is not even real. Fox realizes this and capitalizes on this ignorance. They won’t be happy until their rabble-rousing results in more deaths. Mark my words.

Well fox commentators have as much free speech as anyone else and as the old saying goes “While I may not agree with what you have to say, I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”. Why have so many people forgotten that free speech is supposed to be free?

I can certainly see why people are opposed to Obama, we have a president who campaigned on transparency, economic reform, ending the wars and restored the constitution after ‘previous’ administration had torn it to shreds. What do we see? Tens of thousands of more troops on their way to Afghanistan, expanding hostilities in Pakistan. Gitmo remains open and the coming about of prolonged detention (people being held indefinitely without charges or due process of law). The banking institutions which caused this economic meltdown have been given billions in tax payer money without any real reforms on them to prevent this from happening again. He’s illegally heading the UN security council.

And those are just SOME of the things he has done and just some of the promises he broken since coming into office, the list could go on far longer. It’s the same administration as the last, the same inside players that have made up previous administrations. Both the democrats and the republicans are the same party and people are well justified in saying “Hey Obama, I hope you fail”, because if he wins wall street wins, and when wall street wins the majority of people loose.

Race race race. That is what it boils down to. There is dislike of administration and ideas that the president has and then there is dislike for the person which has nothing to do with policy. In this case I hate to say this but it comes down to a race issue. The fact that they do not talk about his upbringing which was mainly around his white mother and grandparents is ridiculous.
What even stinks more is that those who have this racial undertone are by far the minorities but seem to be winning in the war of words. If the president was white…could someone say “I hope he fails” and get away with it? Isn’t that non patriotic? Or are the Bush days of you are either with us or against us gone? All this slanderous non respectful talk about the president will just brew hate amongst some people and probably result in something that will change our country for ever. Heed the warning my people.

I prefer to look at it another way Cindy. Who would you rather be, a football jock, or a weirdo who takes art classes all day long. I think we know who the weirdos are, liberals were too busy writing in their diaries to play any sports.

Yes it it would be nice if Rush,Sean and Glen would show respect but there not, if they did (duh) no commercial success, no money and no sponsers (yes I said sponsers). There not(sponsers)going anywhere there is to much money to be made. So there you have it the same problem that put us in this mess(the need for money above anything else)as a country, the inability to put the “need for money” in it’s proper prespective. That is all out the window these commintaters have huge contracts. I am being redundant now. MONEY….MONEY…..MONEY. WE CANNOT LEARN IT IS A DARK HOLE.

Respect for the presidency? The Democrats have been in full attack mode as long as I can remember, at least going back to Bill Clinton’s campaign slogan “It’s the economy, stupid”. Now that they’ve returned to power they won’t tolerate the same treatment from the other side.

Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck are not to blame. They have just as much a right to be idiotic on radio/television as Kim Kardashian or Kanye West. If people weren’t watching this garbage every night, they would just fade away.

Americans have lost their ability to think for themselves and so they turn to whoever speaks the loudest. Stop giving these people power! Ignore them until they go away. Stop giving them press when they say something controversial. Think for yourselves – you just might like it.

So Obama not smart enough and getting into ring only to help Fox get more money..I would imagine it helps Obama more because the higher the pitch of Limbaugh’s rant and the more irrational he sounds, lower will be public’s perception of the Limabaughs and republicans , ultimately costing more ballots to republicans ..Check mate

It’s interesting to me that the GOP is looking for a new message. It shows with glaring clarity that the current GOP has no voice. It would seem that they themselves never really did their jobs out of any internal sense of good.

The only commitment they’ve made is to be the “loyal opposition”. They came up with a new website with some kind of “new generation” advertising. But they themselves have nothing.

They are actually looking for IDEAS. They have no core and they want you to give them a message to tout to you so that you will believe their sincerity when they campaign for your vote.

They should not be in office if they can’t understand the simple mission of protecting the interests of the individual citizen. They don’t want to do that. So they’re asking for some other kind of mission.

Neither side gives the office of President proper respect. Just go back and listen to the tirades against George Bush during his term. We live in a culture where double speak and spin support the latest “personality” running the nation. The media circus should just report the facts and let Americans form their own opinions. This is of course predicated on politicians stating the facts without redifining the definition of terms and words on the fly.

For the President to spend valuable time when there are such important problems to attend to like unemployment, nuclear proliferation, etc. on this is sad. I am one of those independents that gave obama a shot in November and yes, I now regret it. Not because of what Fox says but the obvious ineptness he shows in handling his office, choosing the right people and his thin skin. Also, too bad the liberal media (MSNBC) find it hard to remember the Hitler signs with Bushs’ face on it and they didn’t find any reason then to say “we need to respect the office mroe than this”.
One correction, Limbaugh’s quote is incomplete, he said that he hopes Obama’s plans for the country and policies fail. Still, the ridiculous focus on media entertainers is silly and a waste of time – jsut get to work and realize you will never pelase anyone. You would think with the control they have in Congress and the goverment in general along with their experience in gutter politics (Chicago) they would shrug this off.

It was the same thing Democrats did when Bush was in office. The difference is Bush payed no attention to them, and most of them didn’t gain much from the president bashing. Respect for the office of the president died long before Obama, Bush or even Clinton got there. No amount of complaining is ever going to bring it back.

I’m guessing you didn’t have a lot of time to write today’s commentary. I don’t have the time to point out all the weaknesses in your analysis, but here are a few:

1. “The remark set the tone for a steady stream of unbridled and often bizarre criticism from Limbaugh and like-minded radio and TV commentators, several of them working for Fox News….”

Please list some of these “bizarre” criticisms and explain why they are objectively “bizarre.” Specifically, address some of the evidence that might suggest the comments were not “bizarre.”

2. “…for example,…Obama’s mother was white and…he had close and cordial relations with his white grandparents. Obama was visibly shaken when his white grandmother, Madelyn Dunham died, a day before he was elected president.”

This is your refutation of Beck’s controversial statement? That’s as effective as “why, some of my best friends are black!” That tactic doesn’t work in either direction. Didn’t Obama call his grandmother a “typical white woman”? Beck certainly has some grounds for his statement (e.g., Obama’s long-standing relationship with Rev. Wright and his ham-handed attempt to cover it up: “I didn’t notice the Reverend’s hate-filled speeches during the last 20 years)(and that’s just one example; there are others). It will take more to refute Beck on that one.

3. “[Why has]…Fox News…been more of a commercial success than its competitors which feature liberal, pro-Obama commentators and give a platform to people who want the president to succeed?”

You really don’t know? You’re a smart guy; I assume you must be pretending. The answer is obvious: because those who support this Administration’s initiatives (a dwindling number, as those initiatives become understood) have no shortage of news outlets exhibiting a bias that they agree with: ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, BBC, NY Times, Washington Post, etc. With that many outlets, the audience gets fractured. But, the poor individual who wants unbiased info (something without a reflexive, knee-jerk liberal viewpoint) has few choices: Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. If you consider them biased, cite specific examples. You want examples of liberal bias? Read Bernie Goldberg’s book “Bias,” then let’s talk.

4. “[Fox News is] the voice of the opposition….” Fox News is not at all the “opposition.” Fox had the objectivity to savagely criticize Bush when he was in office, and they now criticize Obama. It’s not that Fox is biased FOR the Republicans (or conservatives); what really galls the media and the Administration is that Fox News is not biased for the Democrats (and Obama), while other news sources so clearly are. And both sides seem to agree on this: a recent poll asked people which news source they trusted the most. Republican respondents said Fox News, around 80-something percent. And what did Democrat respondents say? Fox News! (at around 60%). Seems that Fox’s crime is not bias, but not having a liberal bias.

5. “After all, [Obama] won the elections with the votes of Americans who bought into his reform agenda.”

Obama won the election with the votes of Americans who hated George Bush. Obama was very careful to avoid laying out anything specific, other than “hope” and “change.” That allowed voters to define those terms any way they wanted. Now that voters are learning that Obama’s definitions of “hope” and “change” are nothing like theirs, Obama’s support is slipping. That’s the danger of campaigning without specifics, hoping you get elected before people know what you’re up to. The “getting elected” part worked, but enacting your hidden agenda? Maybe not.

6. “And according to a Washington Post/ABC poll to mark his ninth month into the presidency, his job approval rating stands at 57 percent and only 20 percent of the country now consider themselves Republican, the lowest percentage in 26 years.”

Check those polls — Obama’s approval ratings are plunging. Only 20% of voters may be registered as Republicans, but many more than that will vote Republican in the upcoming elections. And, didn’t John McCain get, oh, about SIXTY MILLION votes??

7. “Even [though]…the public option [is] seen as socialism by conservative commentators, a majority of Americans are coming out in support of the president, according to that poll.”

Well, this probably just proves that you can find a poll to support just about anything. The polls I have seen do not support a public option, by a wide margin. The key is the level of the poll respondent’s understanding of what “public option” means: if their general understanding of that term is limited to “someone else pays for my healthcare,” they tend to like it. However, as other aspects of what “public option” means to this Administration become clear to voters — rationing, gradual destruction of choice, skyrocketing costs, lack of medical innovation — their support drops off a cliff. In the end, uninformed support isn’t much support at all (unless you can pass the legislation in the dead of night, with as little public disclosure as possible, which is exactly what this Administration is trying to do).

8. “So why is the White House acting as if right-wing critics pose a mortal danger?”

Because they realize that their “objective critics” (not right-wing but, rather, not left-wing enough) are few in number and there is now a short window of opportunity in which they can eliminate even the weakest criticism, even if only temporarily. Why else would a politician in a country as democratic as the US even propose censorship legislation such as the cynically-named “Fairness Doctrine”? Because, even though it is an affront to our Constitutional principles, it promises to silence the one source of criticism that that politician faces, thus allowing him (or her) and their cronies to operate for a long time without any real “fourth estate” to temper their actions. They are just unable to pass up that chance.

Well, that’s just a quick dissection of your essay. Hope you can do better next time.

I think you miss the point. Fox News and Mr. Limbaugh are opposing points of view than that of the liberal media. The White House is wasting or I should say diverting attention away from the real matters at hand. It is a Magicians trick called slight of hand. If you focus on one thing you will not notice what the other one is doing. The last time I checked in America you can watch, read, or listen to any thing you want. Which means you do not have to listen to the liberal media if you do not want to. Fox repeatedly asks to be shown where they are wrong on the hard news that they report with no one stepping up and correcting them, which must mean they are correct. Shows like Beck’s, Hannity’s, Limbaugh are opinion based shows therefore the realm of Fox not being a legitimate news organization is a load of bull-butter.

IMHO, Fox has far more journalistic integrity than CNN and MSDNC and I dare not watch too much of both. Fox is sensational right as MSDNC is sensational left sans the fiction / twist occasionally produced.

Libs or Reps cannot really complain that the other side is playing dirty given the track record.

Heck, even Hillary said Fox News was fair and balanced during the election; as did several independent media agencies. Did Fox do a 180 all of a sudden? – qualified by it’s obvious and shared objection to failed Obama policies? Since when did opposing view become a crime? When democrats one the election?

That’s not how this country works.

Seems weird & disturbing that the executive branch of our government would look to silence or diminish an opposition voice. Must be that Free Speech / Fairness Doctrine.

The truth -verse- “the perceived truth” will always dominate the airwaves for as long as argument remains sport and people make time to tune in. It’s just good business. Likewise – driving wedges between social communication is great politics.

More importantly – Above All – NOT to be diminished is Congress (Left & Right) continued squander our money – money we don’t have. They pass 1000 page bills with billion dollar price tags and they don’t read said bills – and we do nothing.

Why is it that questioning (and even bashing) every other president was not treated with this much outrage? Someone, please answer this! The SNL skit about Obama was right. He’s done nothing. I liked Obama’s speeches and distrusted McCain, so I voted for Obama. Now stop the speeches and petty distractions and get to work!

The White House’s comments are all correct, so I’m not sure what the debate is about – most intelligent, rational, and non-racist people would have to agree that Limbaugh and Fox News are nothing more than showbusiness – Limbaugh a shock jock of intolerant conservatism, Beck as…well, Beck is just an uneducated nutjob, etc., etc. look at the credentials of their “commentators” and you’ll see that they have had little to no reall journalism education of any kind. So if they want to stoke their uninformed viewership to hate the things they were already hating even more, then go for it – the country, fortunately, has a majority of level-headed, tolerant people to counteract them.

Please explain why it was ‘okay’ for liberal media outlets to bash Bush all day long and it’s not okay for the few outlets conservatives have to question (not bash) Obama, the savior?
All we heard was how stupid Bush was to want to surge troop levels in Iraq and how it would fail. Well they were wrong and instead of reporting that or admitting they were wrong they just changed the subject.
I can’t believe I am saying this but why couldn’t we have had Hillary as Prez?
Both parties are terrible!

Like dealing with someone else’s bad tempered children, especially as the parent (Mr. Murdoch) encourages poor behavior. Not inviting them to the party seems like the obvious solution. Much like TR’s dealing with the press…I’ll give you unprecendented access, but if you misquote me, don’t ever expect me to talk to you again. So where is the accountability? I can call myself news, but spew slander and misquote…how long would Reuters remain in business if they printed ‘editorials’ without indicating that they were opinions, not news? One thing that I notice about ‘viewership’ is that Fox seems to be on every waiting room television (I ask them to politiely switch it to a news channel), which isn’t viewership, but a good way of pumping up numbers.

News Reporting is about delivering factual information quickly and precisely.

FOX is about bias opinions, very often wrong, narrow minded, full of self interest and commercial gains. Little more than a propaganda network for a far right agenda to undermine the public service. It is a dis-service to the public and should loose its broadcast rights or at least be ruled by a truth in broadcasting law where they must prove they are right and not simply able to spew out the bile of their hatred to the middle and working class in America.

It is an insult to all the real professional reporters around the world that risk their lives to present the factual truth to the public.

I chose to turn off my TV rather than allow their stupidity to enter my household.

As an Independent , FOX is by far my favorite network . The WH might not like the Glenn Beck program , but , the show’s research department , is right , most of the time .
The Administration is making error after error in many of their decisions . Most of us , don’t like Chicago style politics.

OK Marius..
show us the facts that support your convulted conspiracy theory (the devil made me do it LOL)

“People have been murdered because of the rhetoric on fox news. Please realize that a lot of Americans think that professional wrestling is real. They will violently defend their belief in what is not even real. Fox realizes this and capitalizes on this ignorance. They won’t be happy until their rabble-rousing results in more deaths. Mark my words.”

My concern is that the entire politial aroma now in control of the legislative and executive branches is distinctively fascist: do as big brother demands, not as he does. The noticeable erosion of our freedoms is a result of that mentality.

Fox News attempting to portray themselves as unbiased is a complete sham. How can someone like Bill O’Rielly be seen as anything BUT slanted? The article is correct in that Fox News is a business, and entertainment is the purpose of many of their programs. Shame on Fox News for attempting to appear as objective, but the White House should have known better than attacking a network with so many viewers. It only serves as a rallying cry for support with Fox News.

I have a theory why Fox has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined, despite the fact that a majority of Americans voted for Pres. Obama. Fox’s audience tends to be less educated, and people who watch TV regularly tend to be less educated (for obvious reasons). So the pool of viewers is already slanted towards Fox, like flies attracted to manure.

Reuters is once again showing it’s bias by only having left-leaning commentators give their opinions. And it is pretty obvious that Bernard has never listened to Glen or Rush because if he had he would know that they both honestly care about America and they both have bashed Bush and McCain almost as much as they have Obama. Their comments are not as bizarre as those of Obama’s staff who openly admire Chairman Mao, Castro and Chaves. I stopped watching the other news media outlets like NBC, ABC, and CNN when they started reporting things like “tingling feelings running down my legs” and “doesn’t he look presidential in this swimsuit photo” and “what kind of dog do you think his daughters should have”. To me those are the “bizarre comments” that show Fox News is the only objective News outlet still available to the U.S. citizen.

The posting by Paul (your dissertation for today) would be entirely what I have to say. In fact, it is better than you op-ed.

It’s true that Rush Limbaugh is just a rabble rouser. When Clinton was in office, I turned on his show only as a pacifier (my other choice was locking myself in a closet and flicking my Bic!) and my biggest complaint with him was he offered nothing to oppose Clinton’s poor administration. Nothing but complaints.

There were no petitions, no marches, no activism, etc. And don’t tell me he didn’t grow up in the ’60′s where that was a way of life.

At least Glenn Beck offers that, as demonstrated by his tea party and other things. I think we ALL know that these shows are sensationalized. At least, I know it. But read the latest column by Beck today. Read the last line: Obama-care is about one thing – it’s about control.

Nowhere else is that statement true than his bashing of Fox News. Obama CAN’T control them. That is what he wants so very much. It’s about socialism and control, and don’t tell me that’s NOT what Joseph Goebbels was all about. Revisit that history (and note, I am not equating Goebbels with Obama – well, not yet…)

I worked for our County for about 6 months, where I quit because I was FORCED to join the corrupt SEIU union. And the union rep said to me, this job, all jobs, at the County level were about power and control. And they are.

I don’t dislike Obama because he is black, or half-black, or who gives a shiesse! I dislike him because he is a socialist. What we need here is to fix our economy, our trade imbalance, our attitude, especially with young people, to spend every cent we have on trash made in China. What we don’t need is socialized medicine, carbon cap and trade (that’ll really screw up the economy!), poor environmental laws, etc. But that’s what he, and his crony Pelosi, are handing us. And when someone gets up and reports about it, complains about it, they hate him because he’s black.

One last thing: I am needing to be on a private insurance plan soon. I will be applying to Blue Cross and will probably, this late in the Obama-care game, be denied. I have congenital high blood pressure. I will probably be forced to carry something like Kaiser, which I will go to as little as possible and pay cash to my normal doctor to see him once a year.

I still don’t want Obama-care. I don’t want the Federal Government screwing with my medical. This is nothing but a power grab, and you now it.

The division has happened, and I think the conquering is well under way. The more real or imagined crisis we have the more deviu. Rememeber America, you are American’s first, your duty is to protect her and her God sent intstitutions. Breaking down our ability to find meaningful concensus through polarization keeps us weak and ripe to be manipulated by ideological enemies like China, Israel ( one race, one religion, disenfranchised palestinians – Not very American) or whoever (cough.. Goldman Sachs ..cough)

Fox new is great entertainment. I look to CBC or Reuters for real news. Fox is just fun at times- however only for a bit since the commentators are not only ignorant they have annoying whiny voices.

Still – they are fun to watch. I don’t know why someone intelligent like Obama gives them so much credit.

I guess they are concerned all the hate radio/TV will be taken seriously and create some internal terrorist groups.

If those religious right nuts watch Fox – I guess enough said. They are the next terrorist group uprising from the ignorance and hatred.

It would be great reality T.V. to have the religious right nuts here and the moslem nuts in the middle east set on an island with nothing but the cloths on their back. The first tribe to kill someone from the other tribe wins a million dollars. Wow the one on one comments with the camera would really reveal our inner beasts.

Fox’s ratings are increasing because they are more reflective of what people are thinking than the other news station. The white house is taking them on because they see Fox as being effective as the only opposition. Obama wants control of the media as all socialists and dictators do because it furthers their agenda to have no opposition. Fortunately for America we have free speach.

So Fox News is “the dominant cable news organisation.” Fox News has “more than twice the combined number of its nearest competitors, CNN and MSNBC, both of which suffered considerable audience declines.” Conservative talk radio is huge. Just look at Limbaugh’s salary. The conservative blogsphere is also huge. Those are all media outlets.
Then what is this liberal media that conservatives complain about? Do they want all opinions to be agreeable to theirs?

The Right Wing Conservatives are a mortal danger, not to Obama, but a mortal danger to the United States of America. Bill Cosby once said that he did not like the Archie Bunker character because he never learned anything.
Extend that to all the idiots who watch Fox News and you get my meaning. Fox News appeals to threatened and thus angry white people and I think they will do anything to keep power and Fox News feeds their frenzy. I for one do not underestimate how dangerous Fox News is. I think the FCC should pull the plug on Fox and all of “talk radio”. It has gotten completely out of hand. It is now a national security issue.

What is news? What is right? How do you or I know that what is being said on ANY network is true?

Do you know what is going on inside Rush’s head? Obama’s? How is it that we are so certain one way or another that what we hear on these networks is truth or half truths?

Step back for a moment and think about it. It is a desire of knowledge that drives us to seek what is happening in the world, but the truth is that we are so far removed from the upper echelons that we will never fully know why things are the way they are, and if what Rush or Obama (or anyone for that matter) are saying is the unfettered truth.

Be an individual, be objective, be independent, get your information from more than one source.

The ignorance in these comments is immense. #1 There is no Obama-Care. Obama is open to the best possible change to what we have now, which is terrible by any realistic international comaprison. #2 The White House is nowhere near shutting down Fox. Folks your President has an advanced degree in Constitutional Law, and you don’t. He believes in America, and that means real media, not Faux News. When they say it’s “not legitimate”, that’s an opinion, and it’s Free Speech. The Right Wingers are so full of fear they can’t hear anything accurately. #4 We already cover everyone, it’s a latter of how we do it. #3 John Kerry let the critics run wild, Obama will not. That’s a smart move no matter the short terms polling or radical fear from the Right, who does … let’s remember ….”want him to fail”.

Surely our minds have forgotten the absurdity that came from the vocal minority (Republicans) at town hall meetings, yes? I agree though, FOX is an entertainment company, responding to the jokers who they somehow get to provide political “insight” merely gives them attention they don’t deserve. As much as I hear of Beck and Limbaugh in the news, I have yet to ever give them any of my time. Anyone whose followers are known as “dittoheads” has nothing to provide to me. When I want political commentary, I watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report…you know “critically aclaimed” political entertainment by people with functioning gray matter.

Fox News may actually have MORE than one purpose. Certainly, it is historical fact that many successful institutions have several purposes at the same time.

Thus, Fox News may be a show business purpose as well as a political purpose. It does not have to be one or the other.

Mr. Murdoch and his super-rich minions–Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, et al.–are directing the nation’s anger toward the government rather than to the people who run the country through the government–the super-rich. Change the government? The super-rich remain.

What is really going on in this country, as usual, is complex. Fox’s audience does not seek complexity. It seeks simplicity, which is both more entertaining (one purpose) and more effective as political propaganda (a second purpose).

Rather than announce its enemy, the administration would do better to undermine its enemy. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the administration itself also serves the interests of the super-rich. Thus, its apparent ineffectiveness is an intentional ineffectiveness, not ignorance at all.

“Obama’s job is to appeal to the Centrists, because they are the people who decide the election?????”

He’s not making it.

In my memory, the only other Democratic president to “out-socialist” Obama was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The difference is that FDR drew the ire of our “industrialites” by trying to help people, not big business.

Talk about sensationalism! Goebbels, Chavez?? The increase in Fox’s success is not so much the result of a few traded blows between the Administration and the Fox bobble-heads but that fact that Fox News has an opposition agenda and most people prefer slander vs. unbiased or proponent news. Look the increased success of the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow during the Bush years. Those shows galvanized their success through criticism and mockery. More amusingly though, the success of those shows continues today by making fodder out of the prattle that comes from the Right Wing New Station. So, thank-you to the Administration. By encouraging Fox News you have made more hilarious material for the liberal pundits.

if it was more profitable to ACTUALLY display an objective stance on news, i’m sure the news networks would be far more factual and overall less bias. however, this is not the case, so we are left in this sh*tstorm of rival networks. it has become so incredibly difficult for people to find a non-biased, factual and OBJECTIVE news network to watch, so people will listen to whoever says what they want to hear, not necessarily who is reporting the NEWS.

What happened to the lucrative business of Obama infomercials and Obama lie peddling? Supply and demand I guess. The supply of Obama infomercials and lie peddlers are so high they are through the roof but the demand for his infomercials and lies is lowering. The new demand is going to be for the truth. The truth supply is low but the demand is high.

Supply and demand.

All the other news networks road high on lying to the American people throughout the presidential campaigns, throughout Obama’s presidency all for profit in the business of sensational reporting and Obama lie peddling in order to cash in on those Obama kool aid drinkers and influencing American policy to get more money. Obama infomercials and Obama lie peddlers are numurous in selling their wares but their not supplying the people with the truth of the negative Obama side effects just the lying act that Obama wants them to show.

So the nbc, abc, cnn and msnbc corrupt networks have a lot of Obama infomercial and lie supply but the demand is dwindling as more people search for the real goings on in Washington and the reality and truth of the issues both on the good side and bad sides of implementation of failed policies.

the days of praise Obama and don’t ask questions or stand against his bad ideas are dwindling as more people seek reality, truth and take a stand for America. We need it. About time. For everyone who has just woke up and stopped thinking what Obama, Gore and Bush tell you to and are just now joining the real situation at hand, Welcome! We need your help.

the obama administration is the biggest bunch of cry babies I have ever seen. wah wah fox news doesn’t like me! all of the other news organizations worship him so i guess they expect everyone to worship him. We really need an adult in the white house again. after all the abuse george bush took, he still did interviews with msnbc. He did this because he believed in his policies and wasn’t afraid to defend them. obama has no faith in his polices and is afraid to be challenged. people in this country need to wake up. vote this whining, childish, socialist administration out in 2012. and by the way the poll dicussed in this story above isn’t accurate. 33% polled were democrats compared to 20% rebublicans. that means 1 out of every 3 polled where dems and only 1 out of 5 were repubs. also look at the way they worded the question. you can’t be that biased and expect to get an accurate poll but look where its coming from. the washington post/ABC both in the pocket of the obama administration. this is scary stuff folks. its called state controlled media very much like fidel castro in cuba. maybe thats what america is turning into.

[...] The lucrative business of Obama-bashing By Bernd Debusmann, Reuters Four days before Barack Obama was sworn into office, a prominent radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, told his conservative listeners that a major American publication had asked him to write 400 words on his hopes for the Obama presidency. Why the White House Bullies Fox By Tucker Carlson, The Daily Beast The Obama team isn’t at war with Fox because it’s conservative. They’re angry because Fox has embarrassed them. Tucker Carlson on the press corps’ shameful silence. [...]

Posted by Featured Articles &#8212; October 22, 2009 : The New Nixon: News and Commentary about the President, his Times, and his Legacy | Report as abusive

Oct 22, 2009

9:55 pm UTC

You know when Fox and Lumbah out there spreading their trash they are trying to cover up for the biggest robbery of all mankind where the pervious admin Bush and the Gang of four bankrupted this country to line up their own pockets. If there is any justice, all the criminals who lied to enrich themselves by starting an illegal war, to jack up the price of gas at the Pump to more than four dollars per gallon, they all should stand trial on betraying this great country. I think this administration should appoint a group of independent investigators to go through the mess that we inherited and name those perpetrators and let the American people to decide what the punishments should be.

Let all they call themselves conservatives move to a location where they are happy to pay 4 dollars a gallon, they all have guns and pissed off at the entire world, and while at it just for fun let them go to wars with their own kids fighting and dieing, using real machine guns and tanks and fighter jets that they were happy to pay more taxes to support having them. I’m sure all the insurance companies will be happy to move there with them to deny them all heath insurance, and collect premiums so they can keep their bank accounts overseas stacked-up.

I urge every lawyer in this country to file a law suit against Fox Group and Lumbah to compel them to be responsible and identify their backers.

Although, since they are feading hours of simply wrong information or bias manipulated facts to the American people, regarding Obama’s Administration, a statement telling the American viewer what they can expect from that network is worth a try.

Well, keep it simple:

1) Fox is following a extrem-right agenda.

2) Rush doesn’t care with Americans, he only cares with low taxes for the rich – like Bush provided – for is $38 million a year!

3) Shame on Fox, standing with the President of the United States NO MATTER WHAT, was their modo, what happened? HIPOCRASY happened! Read your Bible Fox, see what God thinks of hipocrits!

4) Check the facts Americans!

5) Be informed, select your information sources, and stay out of issues that really don’t have matter, like if Obama is a muslin or not! Really doesn’t matter if the man can pull you guys of the crisis and give you job and a better living.

Simple explanation:
1. Narcissistic people have a hard time accepting that not everyone loves and admires them
2. Fox is taking advantage of this fact

100% wrong. It’s the morons like Beck and his ilk who have heads as big as the moon, and so they think they can tell out and out lies really harmful, ugly lies about the President of the US and get rewarded for it.

Most of those watching Fox do it to see how horrible and evil the righties are.

The reason Fox news ratings have increased is because they speak to keeping america free as it was founded on and not let the government control every part of our lives. People are starting to see the truth being reported about our government and how messed up it really is.

What I dont understand is why peaceful liberal people have become so set on destroying anyone who disagrees with them. Why is it Ok for Obabma and his people to tell people to quit watching FOX and for other news organizations to not follow FOX or suffer from that… what happend to the First Amendment? What happened to transparency? What is happening period… why is it more important for Obama and his people to wage war on FOX than people who want to hurt the US? I just dont get it… why is everyone fighting and no one trying to solve problems.. We need JOBS… Obama and his people are worried about what people say about them??? here is an idea ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS… do something productive for America….our governement needs to quit squabbling and get to working for us or we need to vote them ALL out!

“He won the election with the votes of Americans who bought into his reform agenda”? After what his agenda actually turned out to be, which the votors had no way of knowing at the time, He spoke in generalities and never answered any questions about spacifics.ABC Poll…!!
Job approval at 57% ???? At best those polled are ignorant of what is going on in the administration! Maybe they should watch FOX news to learn. The White House afraid of right wing critics? Thay should be afraid, because the criticism is right on!

I understand that one reason why Fox “News” ratings are higher than those of the other cable news outlets is because they have themselves included in the standard cable TV package while the other networks are in the premium packages. I guess you get what you pay for in this field too.

Hemmer advances smear that Jennings knew of “statutory rape” and “never reported it.” During the October 1 edition of America’s Newsroom, co-host Bill Hemmer joined his network’s smears against Department of Education official Kevin Jennings by claiming that Jennings knew of a “statutory rape” case involving a student but “never reported it.” In fact, as Media Matters has confirmed, the student in question was of legal age of consent at the time he was counseled by Jennings.

Kelly on Sotomayor comment: “sounds to a lot of people like reverse racism.” On May 26, co-host Megyn Kelly joined conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh by stating that then-Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” remark “sounds to a lot of people like reverse racism, basically. Like she’s saying that Latina judges are obviously better than white male judges, and that that’s her assumption, and people get worried about putting a person like that on the U.S. Supreme Court.” Kelly later added, “I’ve looked at the entire speech that she was offering to see if that was taken out of context, and I have to tell you … it wasn’t.” In fact, Sotomayor was specifically discussing the importance of diversity in adjudicating race and sex discrimination cases; several conservative legal figures have made similar comments.

America’s Newsroom falsehood: “House Dems vote to protect pedophiles, but not veterans.” On May 6, America’s Newsroom pushed the falsehood that Democrats attempted to “protect” pedophiles in voting in favor of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Hemmer teased a segment by stating that Democrats had reportedly “voted to give special protection to pedophiles.” During the segment, America’s Newsroom ran on-screen text that read, “House Dems vote to protect pedophiles, but not veterans”:

Henneberg repeats right-wing myth that hate crimes bill could gag ministers. During the April 29 edition of America’s Newsroom, correspondent Molly Henneberg repeated the right-wing myth that under the proposed Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, religious groups “may be prosecuted for their religious beliefs if they believe that homosexuality is a sin,” and the disputed claim that the legislation “could gag ministers who preach that [homosexuality is a sin], or even if a church may not want to marry a gay couple.”

Fox News’ Hemmer “keeping track of the stimulus money” — by lifting research from GOP website. On April 23, Hemmer repeatedly suggested information about four “interesting” projects reportedly funded by the recovery act was obtained through Fox News’ own research, even though nearly all of the information Hemmer mentioned, as well as that included in on-screen text and graphics, first appeared on Rep. Eric Cantor’s Republican Whip website.

America’s Newsroom promotes tea party organizing info on-air and online. America’s Newsroom encouraged viewers to get involved with April 15 “tea party” protests across the country, which Fox News had described as primarily a response to President Obama’s fiscal policies. The program frequently hosted tea party organizers, and posted on-screen organizing information, such as protest dates and locations. America’s Newsroom also repeatedly directed viewers to its website, which featured a list of tea party protests.

America’s Newsroom directs viewers to “virtual tea party.” America’s Newsroom repeatedly directed viewers to participate in a “virtual tea party” at Fox News’ purportedly non-biased website, Fox Nation. Hemmer told viewers, “Can’t get to a tea party? Fox Nation hosts a virtual tea party,” while Kelly said, “You can join the tea party action from your home if you go to the FoxNation.com … a virtual tax day tea party.”

America’s Newsroom pushes discredited GOP calculation of Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal. On April 2, guest host Alisyn Camerota asserted that the cost of Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal “would be $3,100 per U.S. household.” The claim was advanced by the House Republican Conference in a March 23 “Talking Points” press release, and the Republicans reportedly purported to back up the claim by pointing to a 2007 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But MIT professor John Reilly, one of the authors of the study, has disputed the GOP’s calculation, stating that his study “has been misrepresented” and that the Republicans’ claim of an average household cost of $3,128 is “nearly 10 times the correct estimate” based on his study’s cap-and-trade model. PolitiFact.com rated the $3,100 figure a “pants on fire” falsehood.

America’s Newsroom promotes McCaughey falsehood that stimulus would “hav[e] the government essentially dictate treatments.” On February 10, Hemmer and Kelly promoted the falsehood — which first appeared in a Bloomberg “commentary” by serial misinformer Betsy McCaughey and was subsequently promoted by Limbaugh and Matt Drudge — that the economic recovery bill included a provision that would, in the words of guest Stephen Moore, a Wall Street Journal economics writer, “hav[e] the government essentially dictate treatments.”
Happening Now (11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET): Home of repeated attempts to pass off GOP research as its own

Happening Now passes off GOP press release as its own research — typo and all. During the February 10 edition of Happening Now, co-host Jon Scott purported to “take a look back” at how the economic recovery plan “grew, and grew, and grew.” In doing so, Scott referenced seven dates, as on-screen graphics cited various news sources from those time periods — all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. A Fox News on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release. The following day, Scott apologized — for running the typo. Scott’s apology was criticized by Washington Post media critic and CNN host Howard Kurtz, who said: “We sometimes jab at the pundits for using talking points, but in the case of Fox News anchor Jon Scott, it was literally true this week. … You should be apologizing for using partisan propaganda from the GOP without telling your viewers where it came from. Talk about missing the point.”

Happening Now posts “FOXfact[s]” about GOP budget nearly identical to GOP Rep. Ryan’s op-ed. During two segments on the April 1, Happening Now aired “FOXfact[s]” purporting to describe facts about the House Republican budget. However, all of the seven “FOXfact[s]” displayed onscreen were nearly identical to portions of an op-ed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) published in that day’s Wall Street Journal.

Happening Now crops clips of Obama to promote “another apology tour.” On June 2, Scott asked if “the president’s upcoming trip [to Europe and the Middle East will] be what conservatives might call another apology tour,” and both Scott and co-host Jane Skinner aired cropped clips of Obama’s remarks from an April 3 speech in France to falsely suggest that Obama only criticized the United States. In doing so, Happening Now joined conservative commentators and Fox News hosts who have cropped or misrepresented Obama’s overseas remarks to falsely suggest, in the words of host Sean Hannity, that Obama was “blam[ing] America first” and, more broadly, that Obama’s earlier overseas trip constituted an “apology tour.”

Fox News presents deceptively cropped six-month-old Biden clip as new. On March 16, Live Desk co-host Martha MacCallum claimed that “after weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend.” Live Desk then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, which included video of Vice President Joe Biden stating, “The fundamentals of the economy are strong.” However, Biden did not make those remarks during an “interview” that weekend; he made them at a September 2008 campaign event in which he criticized statements by Sen. John McCain. MacCallum apologized the next day.

Fox’s Camerota pushes bogus stat that cap-and-trade would cost “every American family $1,761 annually.” On September 30, guest co-host Alisyn Camerota pushed the bogus stat that cap-and-trade would cost “every American family $1,761 annually.” PolitiFact.com has labeled the statistic false and noted that the talking point has been pushed by Republicans.

Jarrett suggests DOJ “thinks it’s OK to intimidate white people, not OK to intimidate black people at the polls.” On July 30, guest co-host Gregg Jarrett suggested that the Obama Department of Justice “thinks it’s OK to intimidate white people, not OK to intimidate black people at the polls.”

Live Desk: “Dems and Unions Push to Kill Workers’ Right to Secret Ballot.” During a report on the Employee Free Choice Act on the March 11 edition of The Live Desk, Fox aired a chyron stating, “Dems and Unions Push to Kill Workers’ Right to Secret Ballot.” In fact, the legislation would not eliminate employees’ right to a secret ballot; as The New York Times reported, “Business groups have attacked the legislation because it would take away employers’ right to insist on holding a secret-ballot election to determine whether workers favored unionization” [emphasis added]. Indeed, as The Christian Science Monitor has noted, “[t]he proposed law gives workers a choice of forming a union through majority sign-up (‘card check’) or an election by secret ballot.”

MacCallum agrees with Bachmann’s claim that Obama’s proposals are a “lurch toward socialism.” On March 24, MacCallum responded to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) claim that Obama proposals are a “lurch toward socialism” by stating: “I think you’re absolutely right about that.”

“Democrat” Mark Sanford. While airing live footage of a press conference by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Live Desk incorrectly identified the Republican as a Democrat. Gallagher later apologized for the error.
Special Report (6-7 p.m. ET): Video doctoring, cropped quotes, smears of Obama officials, falsehoods

Baier smears Jennings as failing to report “sexual abuse.” On October 1, host Bret Baier joined Fox News’ witch hunt against Jennings, claiming that “Education Secretary Arne Duncan is standing behind his so-called safe schools czar after revelations that Kevin Jennings did not report a case of sexual abuse he encountered as a schoolteacher.”

Wilson: Jennings “admitted” that “he failed to alert authorities when a 15-year-old boy told him he was involved in a sexual relationship with an older man.” On October 6, correspondent Brian Wilson stated: “School safety czar Kevin Jennings is currently under fire because he admitted that in 1988, when he was a high school teacher, he failed to alert authorities when a 15-year-old boy told him he was involved in a sexual relationship with an older man. One member of the House believes Jennings would not have his current job if czars were required to face Senate confirmation hearings.” Wilson repeated the 15-year old age claim even though FoxNews.com previously acknowledged that the student was of legal age — 16 years old — at the time.

Video doctoring: Goler reverses meaning of Obama quote to falsely suggest he supports European-style health care. On April 24, White House correspondent Wendell Goler cropped a comment by Obama and took it out of context — effectively reversing the statement’s meaning — to falsely suggest that Obama supports creating a health care system “like the European countries.” Goler claimed that Obama “doesn’t want to do it halfway” on health care, and then aired a clip from a March 26 online town hall event of Obama saying, “If you’re going to fix it, why not do a universal health-care system like the European countries?” Following the clip, Goler reported: “His critics worry universal health care would mean government-run health care.” In fact, Obama actually said, “Now, the question is, if you’re going to fix it, why not do a universal health-care system like the European countries?” [emphasis added] In doing so, Obama was paraphrasing the town hall question he had been asked — “Why can we not have a universal health-care system, like many European countries, where people are treated based on needs rather than financial resources?” — before explaining why he opposed such a system.

Fox’s Garrett deceptively cropped Obama remark on judicial role. On May 1, saying it was a “description of how the president hopes his nominee will interpret the law,” congressional correspondent Major Garrett aired a clip in which Obama stated: “I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.” Garrett then said: “That aggravates those who believe justices should follow the Constitution and legislative intent.” But Garrett omitted Obama’s very next sentence, in which he stated: “I will seek somebody who is dedicated to the rule of law, who honors our constitutional traditions, who respects the integrity of the judicial process and the appropriate limits of the judicial role.”

Rosen: “Rats could attack us in the sewers and court systems if all of Cass Sunstein’s writings became law.” On September 9, reporter James Rosen joined Glenn Beck’s “czars” witch hunt by distorting Obama administration official Cass Sunstein’s writings about organ donation and animal rights.

Special Report packs in health care falsehoods. In an August 24 report on how, in the words of Baier, “Republicans are trying to position themselves as the party looking out for seniors’ well-being,” Rosen advanced the conservative talking point that Democrats plan to cut Medicare benefits for seniors and presented the widely debunked “death panel” falsehood as a he said/she said. Rosen also advanced the smear that Veterans Health Administration officials are referring veterans to a booklet that encourages them to end their lives prematurely.

Baier falsely suggests Obama has cited Canada as possible health reform model. On June 29, Baier falsely suggested that Obama has cited Canada’s medical system as a “possible model” for his health care reform plan. In fact, Obama has explicitly rejected a Canadian-style health care system.

Special Report falsely suggests activism question deleted from questionnaire for Sotomayor. A June 4 report by legal correspondent Shannon Bream falsely suggested that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) eliminated a question on judicial activism from the questionnaire for Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination. In fact, Leahy reportedly removed the question in 2007 pursuant to a bipartisan agreement. The following day, Baier corrected Bream’s report by acknowledging that the question was deleted “long before Sotomayor was picked for the high court.”
Fox News Sunday: “Death book,” health care misinformation

“Death book” distortions abound on Fox News Sunday. On the August 23 edition of Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace hosted former Bush administration aide Jim Towey to discuss his Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The Death Book for Veterans,” and in doing so promoted numerous distortions about an end-of-life educational booklet used by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). In addition to forwarding the smear that the booklet is a “death book,” Wallace promoted Towey’s distortion that the booklet encourages veterans to “pull the plug” — it doesn’t; Wallace and Towey both suggested that the Bush administration suspended use of the booklet — it didn’t; and Wallace claimed that a VHA document requires doctors to direct veterans to the booklet — it doesn’t.

Wallace revives rationing bogeyman. On August 16, Wallace repeatedly advanced the conservative talking point that Democrats’ health care reform proposals would create a system of rationing care, omitting the fact that rationing already happens under the current system. Indeed, Wallace did not acknowledge that rationing already occurs, even after his guest, American Medical Association president J. James Rohack, said, “[T]here’s a myth that rationing doesn’t occur right now. … That’s why this bill’s important. It gets rid of some of the rationing that’s occurring right now.”

Wallace claimed Holder, confirmed 75-21, “got into office by the skin of his teeth.” On February 22, Wallace claimed that Attorney General Eric Holder “got into office by the skin of his teeth.” However, Holder was confirmed by the Senate in a 75-21 vote, and the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-2 in favor of reporting his nomination to the full Senate.

Wallace on Obama: “pettiness,” “childishness”; Obama admin. “biggest bunch of crybabies.” Wallace has claimed Obama did not appear on his show because of “pettiness” and “childishness,” and has called the Obama administration the “biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.”
Fox News opinion programs don’t just have “vibrant opinion” — they frequently smear Obama administration

Fox News “opinion” programs frequently smear Obama administration with falsehoods. In defending its programming, Fox News has repeatedly pushed the argument that critics are targeting the network for the “vibrant opinion” expressed on shows such as Glenn Beck and Hannity. However, Fox News’ “opinion” programs don’t simply have a “vibrant opinion” about the Obama administration — they frequently smear the Obama administration with falsehoods. Fox News’ pattern of smearing the Obama administration follows the network’s prevalent pattern of smears and misinformation — on both the network’s purported straight news hours and its “opinion” shows — during the 2008 political campaign.

the Republicans are the biggest bunch of cry babies I have ever seen. wah wah The country is moving away from our ideologies! all of the other news organizations worship him(Obama) so i guess they expect everyone to worship him(Obama). We really have an adult in the white house now. after all the those crappy conservative Presidents with fascist ideas, Bush did interviews with msnbc. He did this because he is blinded by faith and religion and wasn’t afraid to defend them because in his narrow minded ignorant view point god will always deliver to the faithful in the end. Obama has no faith in this religious garbage and is not afraid to be open minded with new ideas. people in this country need to wake up. vote these whining, childish, Facist conservatives out of congress in 2010. and by the way the poll dicussed in this story above is accurate. 33% polled were democrats compared to 20% rebublicans. that means 1 out of every 3 polled where dems and only 1 out of 5 were repubs. also look at the way they worded the question only the idiot conservative wouldn’t be able to understand it. you can’t be that biased and expect to get an accurate poll but look where its coming from. Fox news is the neo fascist voice in the usa. this is scary stuff folks. its called propaganda very much like Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in italy, Noriega in panama, Ahmnenidinjiad in Iran, Saddam in iraq ,and osama bin laden in the arab world.. maybe thats what america is turning into. (a bunch of facist morons who cling to there guns and religion)

The reason Fox News, Rush, Mike Savage are doing so well is the regular news is not doing their job and only making Obama and Company look like the second coming of Christ.

If you disagree with Obama, you’re labeled racist, white nut conservative.
Well, those values built a great nation (not perfect but nobody is) and liberal
thinking has ruined it. Obama should be taken out of office for treason.
Imagine if any other political party tried to censor our news, freedom, socialize corporations, turn rich against poor. What a dumb generation of young people
and liberals.

I think that the two problems that Obama consistently runs into is his political naivete and his pick of handlers/advisers. Both are extremely poor.

His handlers are forever stearing him in the wrong direction with poor advice and, politically he can’t tell a “hot potato” issue from a slam dunk opportunity.

I am an independent leaning conservative but I voted for Elliot Spitzer (NY) (and look what it got me) but I, for the life of me, cannot understand how he let himself get sucked into trading blows with Rush. Rush is a self-admitted entertainer. He gets paid by raising numerous controversies, regardless of who his target is. Rush probably views Obama and his team as a personal gravy train. He couldn’t have planned it any better.

As far as the Fox network is concerned, he got sucked in again. In my opinion, sucked in big time. Not only does he condemn (via his surrogates) an entire network because of the comments of only two individuals. He gives the appearance of being frightened of them by avoiding them.

When you were a kid, and the class bully came around, what was your first reaction? It was “run away, run away.” And if you did that you were classified as a whimp. Well looks like we have ourselves a whimp in the White House. Not only does he bow down and give into foreign powers, he is actually intimidated by ‘words’ yes, just ‘words’ from prime time opinion personalities. What would he do if bullets were to start flying? Duck behind his desk in the Oval Office or send Hillary out to see if the coast is clear? Makes you wonder what the man is made of, steel or play dough.

My advice to him would have been to do and interview or two with newspeople at Fox. O’Reilly, Sustrand, Smith, etc… just pick one or two. He’s the President for crying out loud. You would think that if Fox was contacted by the White House and told that he would like to do an open interview with, say for instance O’Reilly tomorrow night the schedule would have been cleared in an instant and he would have been given the air time.

Their lack of common sense is amazing.

I truly believe that the rumored White House Enemies List is being formulated and it will be a large part of any failures that he and his party will be experiencing in the near future.

Fox News is a joke. Rupert Murdoch and his little helper Karl Rove are laughing all the way to the bank. Murdoch literally, single-handedly, has worked successfully at almost burying objective journalism. Karl Rove has single-handedly worked to destroy honest law-making. Anyone who believes what they hear from those so-called Fox “commentators” would have bought the Brooklyn Bridge! Hurrah for everyone who bypasses the Fox channels.

What’s wrong with Fox earning money? Is that somehow a crime? It’s not wrong when George Soros does it…

I think it’s great show biz! It sure beats all the *** kissing the rest of the media has been doing for the last year.

I think that’s what you’re seeing Mr. Debusmann, people are tired of hearing a one sided debate and while they might not always agree with Fox News (like me), they want at least an opposing viewpoint to judge the situation, which is beyond the abilities of most other news outlets to offer.

Bernd, in addition to your article, and the Bachelor article you mention, now Nicolle Wallace has kicked in her two cents on the Fox story as well.

These two Republican operatives claim the White House is making a big-time mistake in taking on Murdoch’s news network. As proof, they, and you in your article, point to rising ratings (+2%!) for Fox News. Excuse me, +2% is something to be worried about?!? Bernd, the ratings are unimportant. The core of the issue lies elsewhere.

Obama, as President of the United States of America, and his Presidency, represent a transforming force in American politics (bringing health care reform, tax reform, climate change reform, education reform, immigration reform, and, and, and — all the things the Republican Party refused to address the past 30 years!).

Of course his Presidency would become a target for right-wingers like Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News stable of dittoheads – shameless hacks like Beck, O’Reilly, and Hannity, among others, who Murdoch has hired, at great expense, to do his political bidding.

As we can see every day, Murdoch’s method is not to debate policies (he’d lose that debate because he’s 50 years behind the curve, and he knows it!). Rather, he prefers to “fast-boat” the President, demean and delegitimize his Presidency, lay the groundwork for getting a right-winger back into the Presidency, and, by this slight-of-hand, defeat policies most Americans want implemented.

Is Rupert Murdoch, and his Fox Central, dishonest, is his method of political combat dishonest – you betcha!

But “fast-boating” worked on former candidate John Kerry because he didn’t challenge it soon enough and hard enough. And it will “work” on Obama’s Presidency too, if he, his staff, and the American people let Murdoch get away with his latest version of “fast boating” unchallenged.

Now please, Bernd, Bachelor, and Nicolle Wallace, are declared Republican operatives, hacks one might even say. In fact, Wallace is an acolyte of Steve Schmidt. These two went to Karl Rove’s “kindergarden for promising talents”. They supported George “W” Bush’s failed policies down to the last day, and then they worked all last year to get McCain/Palin into the White House, too. Fortunately for our nation, they failed.

Bachelor’s and Wallace’s derogatory comments are the best proof we could have for the effectiveness of the new White House initiative in taking on Murdoch-think and Murdoch propaganda.

On the other hand, if the White House strategy was actually missing the mark, these operatives would be “encouraging” it on, not pretending it’s ineffective. Fact is, these Republican promotion artists are hurting, and Murdoch’s long-term Fox-prospects are seriously suffering.

The campaign to expose Rupert Murdoch and his Fox TV network as America’s right-wing propaganda central is actually working, and exposing Murdoch and Fox for what they are, and for what they actually represent. This full-court press needs to be kept up non-stop for however long it takes, years if necessary, to get the message out to all Americans that Murdoch and Fox are trying to sabotage our future as a nation and as a people.

Will those who approve of Murdoch-think remain loyal to him and his Fox TV? Of course they will. That’s fine, we’re a democracy. But as with Limbaugh, that demographic is but a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the many millions of Americans who stand for decency, and want to see our country advance. Together, we can, and we will be successful in this endeavour. Murdoch and his high-paid henchmen (and –women) on Fox TV will fail.

The left bashed Bush for eight straight years. They cannot stand it that now it is their Prez getting what they gave Bush. Liberals are the worst or the worst. They are hypocrites because they hate anyone or anything who disagrees with them. They dont know how to debate with intelligence, so they just accuse and call people Nazis, gangs or just plain racists. They are low life individuals on the lowest order.

Obviously the author of this piece is a fellow traveling socialist who cannot comprehend why an intelligent free citizen would oppose the curtailment of freedom that Obama’s heavy hand seeks to impose on traditional American values. That same ignorance, 200 years ago, resulted in the American war for independence from Britain. Here’s a clue: socialism conflicts on every level (politically, economically, culturally, etc) with freedom. It is no wonder people with principles in accord with Rush Limbaugh’s vehemently wish the confiscatory, coercive policies of Obama to fail. The presumption that Americans who elected Obama bought into his socialist agenda is belied by the ambiguous, conservatively tinged populism Obama spouted in the campaign. There is a huge reservoir of Americans who believe they were hood-winked by the slick talking Obama in the 2008 election. Keep an eye on what happens in 2010.

The president won the election by making generalised promises, and using charisma and spin in lieu of substance. He creating an image he is now unable to live up to.

As a result, the far-right media start creating lies and scandals. Things which easily get up the Democrat noses, as they are designed.

This then means the Democrats start claiming that anyone who opposes them is racist, republican or bitter. And that because of these qualities, their arguments have no merit.

Which means that all legitimate critisism of Obama is lumped with the far-right and dismissed in the same manner. Meaning that the Democrats fail to address these critisisms and start digging a massive political hole for themselves.

30% of Americans identify as Republican? An interesting poll, assuming it is correct. And even so, hardly relevent this soon after an election.

Especially since Obama’s approval rating seems to be falling already, and he is yet to show any progress aside from keeping the status quo. Except, of course, for health reforms he can’t even finance.

But hey, ignore my legitimate critisism. I must be a racist or a bitter republican, right?

This whole article only reports half the story. It only focuses on the spin and manipulation of FOX. And ignores the spin and manipulation of the Obama administration.

Obama realises he can’t have empty far-right spin interfering with his own empty Obama spin. So for the first time, the President’s administration and the media are at war.

If you think FOXNEWS tells the truth you also need to hear what Mark Levine, a.m. radio host has to say. Read his book, “Liberty and Tyranny”. It is an education on what America was founded on.
We are losing our freedoms everyday and many of the ignorant are still watching ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN. The White house wants to destroy any free thinkers who won’t listen to all of the Obama news networks.
This White House is a radical, marxist bunch who wants to re-educate us all in to mind numb robots who can be controlled by them. They really do not think we are very smart. This job has gotten quite hard as they didn’t think it would take so long.
But this White House does not realize that Americans will not tolerate them and we will stop them. So people continue to fight for liberty, justice, our Constitution and the principles of our Founding Fathers. Never EVER GIVE UP!

Marcia C ? You might need to re-think the use of ‘ uppity’ darlin. Hijacking catchy phrases like that from “The One” only go to show that you are ‘acting stupidly’.
The Statists themselves have given a wake up call to the Conservative right by standing behind this usurper and Beck is one of many to answer that call. If Becks’ opinions/insinuations/facts are so far from the truth, answer why the’ house that is White’ doesn’t call him directly by phone? Anita Dunn has his DIRECT phone number and yet she hasn’t called. Set emotion aside and answer that one logically.

Very eloquent. It is so nice to hear a voice of reason in these tumultuous times. Too bad public education is not what it used to be. I feel sorry for these ignorant people who were cheated out of an education that taught us to love our America!!

Bernd drank the Obama kool-aid. There are so many problems with this article that I don’t know where to start. I will point out just a few.

Trying to discredit opposition to Obama by saying they are in it for the money is sad. Maybe they honestly and passionately disagree. Did you ever think of that?

Also, I see you picked your poll wisely. I have seen several credible polls that show that a majority of the public does not want Obamacare or the public option.

Also, Bernd says Obama “had close and cordial relations with his white grandparents. Obama was visibly shaken when his white grandmother, Madelyn Dunham died, a day before he was elected president.” He conveniently forgot that Obama called his grandmother a “typical white person.” Can you imagine if a white person had said that about a black person? It would be called racisim immeidiatly. Could Beck have had a point?

Also, if it is true that only 20% are calling themselves republicans, it isn’t because they support Obama and the democrats, it is because the republican party isn’t conservative enough.

it is quite apparent that obama and his administration have little tolerance for contradictions – the reasons are simple, low self esteem, few people are willing to follow an inarticulate buffoon, a liar, an idiot and a person who has never accomplished anything of substance – go figure!

Bernd Debusmann if full of crap. We are seriously afraid of Mr. Obama. He is leading this country down the path towards destruction. If he and his fellow leftist congressmen and senators get their way there will be no free enterprize, no America as we have known it and we will be in the same financial shape that every other third world country is. That is not what we want and that is not what Fox is fighting for. They are fighting to tell the truth about this president and his henchmen. The other networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Washington Times, New York Times etc…) and the rest of the main stream press don’t seem to care for anything as far as what the USA was founded on. Fox and Rush and the other conservative talk show people do. If these networks , the Democrats and our fine President have their way we will have no rights and no country.

Why rationally debate a bunch of republican trolls? I say debate on a comment forum over the internet is not a debate at all. Sure you might have a couple people who are sad individuals who will reply to some wingnut who responds to his post. But the vast majority of people, say what they think, feel justified in their own pre conceived ideology, and move on. Albeit nowadays most comments are from angry republicans because Obama is teh socialism. But seriously debate a bunch of trolls on the internet? Good luck with that.

Republicans are morons, go see the rest of the world and then tell me why America is so great. Get over yourselves, the rest of the world see’s you as the stereotypical ignorant American.

This is too funny. All the republicans have done is to reuse the same tactics used by Ms. Pelosi, Mr frank, Mr Dodd and other democrats over the past 4 years of Bush’s presidency. I’ve heard it said, Imitation is the sincerest form of flatery. Why are the Dem’s mad becuase their tactics are being used quite effectively back on themselves. Hmm, it couldn’t be because they are hypocrits. Or maybe it could. In another year, when Nancy and Harry are gone and forgotten, and someone is elected who knows how to work with business rather than revile business, maybe things will get back to normal and he economy can grow again. In the meantime, the boy from the Chi-town hood, has knocked the economy back 10 years and has created deficits, to payoff his cronies, 4 times the size of any previous president.

Too bad Obama couldn’t have been elected to the supreme court, where he would have had to convince 9 other thinking people, instead of the presidency, where he just had to fool the uneducated majority. What a waste…

The parallel to the lefties bashing Bush doesn’t work, though. While some of it, yes, was extreme and unnecessary, plenty of the complaining during the Bush years was based on real, tangible results caused by Bush’s policies: Bush let a terrorist attack happen on his watch (thousands of Americans dead), and then started a war which got handfuls of his pals tons of money (vice president included… helloooo?)…. and thousands more Americans dead. Can you read that, Republicans? Americans were dying daily. Remember how those who opposed the war were somehow unpatriotic?

That’s why the parallel doesn’t fully match. I’m willing to bet that the majority of people complaining about Obama’s policies cannot actually outline how fast it takes a stimulus package to work or not work, or how long unemployment trails (time-wise) behind economic ebbs and flows, or what amount of money they would actually lose from their paycheck when certain legislation is passed. I’m also willing to be that many of those who complain about all of this “socialism” have never uttered a word about:

Where do you draw the line with this “socialism” idea? Why the hell do my tax dollars go to organizations who believe in fairy tales (and hate science when it tells them something they don’t want to hear, despite the fact that they enjoy the products of science every day?)?

I’m not even an Obama fan and I don’t know if his policies will work – but the Republicans have been completely inconsistent in their criticism of the administrations of the past 20 years or so. It’d be one thing if there was a Glenn Beck-type guy on Fox during the Bush years. For some, strange, completely unfathomable reason, there wasn’t……. hmmmmm.

Barack Obama sees worst poll rating drop in 50 years
The decline in Barack Obama’s popularity since July has been the steepest of any president at the same stage of his first term for more than 50 years.

Wow, beautiful comments on page 7, Republicans. Really lofty. Actually, you’re running scared, because Obama is now in his stride, and the agenda we elected him to implement is coming along fine, thank you.

You lost the election because your ideas would destroy our future as a people. Stew in your own juices as long as you want, steam about progress as much as you like.

The train has left the station, but you are still on the waiting platform. Too bad. And P.S.: your fast-boating trick only works once – Obama and all decent Americans will call you out on your current campaign, and it will fail. So will Rupert Murdoch and his Fox news progaganda central.

“Also, I see you picked your poll wisely. I have seen several credible polls that show that a majority of the public does not want Obamacare or the public option.”

I guess he picked his poll based on the point he was making…the people support President Obama. Why post polls on a singular policy when trying to make that point?

“But hey, ignore my legitimate critisism.” speaking of, “Especially since Obama’s approval rating seems to be falling already, and he is yet to show any progress aside from keeping the status quo. Except, of course, for health reforms he can’t even finance.” and “The president won the election by making generalised promises, and using charisma and spin in lieu of substance. He creating [sic] an image he is now unable to live up to.”

I don’t see any “legitimate critisism [sic]” there. Presidential ratings are notorious for changing up an down as public opinion is swayed by the fight over policies. No news there. He is still supported by the majority of Americans according to polls. Next, Obama spoke of his ideas, goals and plans as President. Now whether he has pushed all his plans through congress and the Republican fight is moot. As a President following through on his pledge to certain ideals, he is being honest and sincere. More than can be said for his predecessor.

“Which raises the question why Fox News, which effectively functions as the voice of the opposition, has been more of a commercial success than its competitors which feature liberal, pro-Obama commentators and give a platform to people who want the president to succeed?”

I think when counting numbers from statistics, we need to consider other forms of media. The Obama campaign had a significant following online. A significant portion of the “movement” was “moved” from there. So, is it possible that there is a significant presence of discussion, dialog and planning occurring under the anonymity of the Web? Things seem to go his way even though you do not see a lot of work happening on the pro-Obama stations (relative to the massive amount of propaganda Fox spews each minute).

Fear and anger are the most basic and easily
manipulated emotions. Expand to resentment
and the relief of blaming someone else, throw
in some self-righteousness, and the mystery
of the American far right becomes clear.
Ditto fundamentalists and extremists everywhere.

“Trying to discredit opposition to Obama by saying they are in it for the money is sad. Maybe they honestly and passionately disagree. Did you ever think of that?”

Surely the Fox pundits have different views, but let’s not be naive. Guys like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh (as well as liberal commentators like Keith Olbermann) are media mavens, who feast on controversy. They know that as their commentary becomes more aggressive, their ratings go up. Instead of offering balanced criticism, they point fingers and make alarmist accusations with mock outrage. It’s good showbiz! I distrust anyone in the media, liberal or conservative.

If you want to listen to the real opposition, talk to a conservative who is an average American, for god’s sake. That person will have way more insight than these clowns.

Hmmm, I think Obama administration is just trying to divert the American attention to why he has such low approval rating. No, Mr. President it’s not because of what Limbaugh, Beck or FOX news trying to portray you. You have low approval rating because unemployment is sky high, banks are questionable, new health plan is confusing and…… we are afraid- afraid that about our future- afraid you don’t know what you are doing. Low approval rating is formulated from low confident. FOX news and NBC to me and most of American is for solely entertainment values- it’s not the real contributor to your low ratings.

Gee, Bernd doesn’t mention that the “bizarre criticism” of obama has consisted mostly of pointing out that obama’s policies are socialist or worse, and the many czars and advisers who are admitted communists, socialists, ex-terrorists, pro-NAMBLA, anti-capitalist, pro-Mao, anti-free speech, pro-Chavez, and other radicals.

Exposing such anti-Americans used to be the job of what Bernd would consider the “serious journalists”…..who are now complicit sycophants of the obama administration.

As a third observer of another nationality, the anti-healthcare characterisation of Obama as Hitler and his program as Nazism or Communism seems very very far-fetched indeed.

Almost all European countries, be it Western, southern or Scandinavian, have healthcare and even far-eastern asian countries like Japan and Korea have a basic system of social healthcare that provides affordable medical aid to all members of the society. And all the above countries pursue market-economy and free-competition.

It is somewhat disturbing to see americans buying into media’s nonsensical anti-Obama propaganda.

Is it possible that David Axelrod is outsmarting everybody again? The White House attacks Rush the 4th day in office and he gets crowned the de-facto head of the Republican Party. Ratings soar. It dismisses Fox for sponsoring tea parties and Beck’s ratings explode. Daily, the attacks from the on air critics grows more acid, and their networks make money, so they keep going farther. Its only 3 million people, so they are no real threat at the ballot box. They could not stop McCain in the primaries or elect him in November. But keeping them riled up is great for network stockholders.
However, it may spell death for the GOP. Only 20% now identify as Republicans….down from 25% this summer. Not a single serious politician has emerged to challenge Obama. The Rushites have reduced the leader of the GOP, Michael Steele into a neutered joke. Only Sarah is conservative enough for them, but only they take her seriously.
It looks like Axelrod has put Rush and Fox in charge of his opposition, sort of like Nixon’s dirty tricksters wiped out Muskie and the strong contenders, so they could run against the weaker McGovern. These Bozo’s aren’t smart enough not to attack the president for trying to bring the Olympics to America, and for winning a Nobel Prize. And what should be the level heads in the GOP don’t have a clue as to how to wrest control back from the Axelrod appointed crazies.

While everyone else is laughing at the White House for making Fox more powerful, the White House gets the last laugh, by empowering people that 75% of America will never take seriously.

“Obama spoke of his ideas, goals and plans as President. Now whether he has pushed all his plans through congress and the Republican fight is moot. As a President following through on his pledge to certain ideals, he is being honest and sincere.”

So in other words, it doesn’t matter what Obama actually does. All that matters is that he continues to support the ideals he claims to hold. Whatever that means.

If Obama follows that game plan, his opinion polls will only go down. And all the spin in the world won’t save him.

“More than can be said for his predecessor.”

Bush may have done things you and fellow democrats disagree with, but at least he took action.

At the moment Obama is trying to find a project to complete by the next election, and has no good choices available. The longer he waits, the more the public will respond to his inaction.

“I don’t see any “legitimate critisism [sic]” there.”

Oh. So commenting on the president’s inaction and the fact he proposes medical reforms he can’t finance isn’t legitimate criticism?

Then what is?

How about you give an example of some legitimate criticism about Obama. Or do you believe he is above reproach?

I cannot believe I have seen what I just read!
At least it assures me of the truth that “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.” Psalm 118:8
AND, another truth “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9
Oh, BTW, the Good Book has been around way longer than any media source that you all are fighting over to determine the truth!

you are a foolish liberal. The reason the ratings have have gone up for Rush, Fox, Hannity, Beck and others who expose the truth is because they speak the truth, and this is what the american people want. We are tired of being spoon fed what the administration wants us to hear through the lapdog media.

It’s unfortunate but we do have a controlled media. No news agency should EVER be owned by any other company. Freedom from ownership allows true freedom of the press.

As it is, reporters are never allowed to report real issues if those issues make the parent company (or it’s important partners) look bad.

The current republican party is a joke. They have no message. Our republican leaders have no internal compass. If the GOP has lost its message it’s because it was never operating according to any tenants of real value. Nothing that goes on on Capitol Hill is done in the interests of the citizen.

Those in power seek only to enrich themselves at the expense of our families and loved ones. Obama watched his mother battle insurance idiots while she was dieing of cancer. That’s why he’s pushing this reform. And that is why I support him. His efforts stem from a desire that no one should ever have to experience something like that in this country.

We need to deal with real human issues in real human terms and stop putting money and profit in front of every problem we face. Obama’s health care initiative is a step in that direction. But making it work requires that people stop seeing the suffering of their brothers and sisters as a “business opportunity”. Good health is a basic HUMAN RIGHT. It is not a commodity to be bought and sold. It is not some privilege to be bestowed on the wealthy while the poor are allowed to live in sickness, not having enough money to qualify as human beings.

Glen Beck the Fox show puppet when saying that..“This president has exposed himself as a guy, over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people and white culture.”
Would be well advised to reflect on the words of a former (White) president namely Abraham Lincoln who stated that ..Quote: God must have loved the common people for he made so many of them: Unquote. Hmmm one can but wonder if Lincold would have included Mr Beck in that poignant description? In any case, Lincoln was indeed the master of eloquent diplomacy. If I were Mr Beck I would refrain from resting on my laurels…. Amen

Obama is a breath of fresh air in American politics. The vast majority of Americans like him and understand the enormity of the challenges he faces. Challenges that he is facing head-on and with each one getting the attention it deserves. The man is smart, strong, listens well and projects the friendship to our allies that has been lacking for so long. It is a shame that networks like FOX News pass of their political agendas as news to unsuspecting, poorly educated Americans. Guys like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and airheads like Sarah Palin are causing hatred among Americans and getting rich doing so!

Of COURSE “Obama-bashing,” which I suppose includes saying anything even remotely negative about President Obama, is good business. Liberals still don’t seem to understand the most basic concept of supply and demand: when everyone else is sitting pretty for treats from the Obama administration, it leaves an enormous audience for Fox, Rush, and a few others to reel in.

FOX is popular because no other news shows air the real truth about Obama’s motives and the Democrat’s agendas. I listen to all the news shows and it drives me crazy that one only gets the ‘nice’ sugar-coated stories from the non-fox networks. Also, they constantly bring up distractions to portray the GOP as the ‘party of no’—FOX deserves its following because it isn’t just a white house PR firm.

Conservatives are not identifying themselves as Republicans because the Republicans have proven that they are not conservatives where it matters. However, when it comes time to vote, conservatives will mostly vote Republican because they are the lesser of two evils. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are fiscal conservatives, so the best that true conservatives can hope for is that the Republicans will increase government spending at a lower rate than the Democrats.

All the administration did was point out that FOX News can’t keep its commentaries separated from actually fact-based news.

The 9/12 demonstration is a clear example of this. Not only did the actively promote that day in and day out (during “real news shows”, but while “reporting live”, they ginned up the crowd to make it seems more ruckus.

All that is fine, but you just can’t call it NEWS because it’s being fabricated. And channel that spends virtually of its time dedicated to “political news” fabricating things cannot legitimately call themselves a News Channel. And certainly not one that is “fair and balanced” (what a joke that is).

I administration has said it doesn’t have an issue with it, but just wants to call it what it is, talk radio on the TV. I think there may be more danger in legitimizing that type of “news” by treating them as though they were real journalists.

(That said, there are a few actual journalists that work for FOX NEWS, but they are being greatly overshadowed by the majority of folks inject opinion in virtually every political story).

The Obama/Fox feud has been going on for a long time, remember when then candidate Obama said to be sure to watch the debate, but not on FOX! I leave all my TVs on FOX intentionally to register my support for fair & balanced news – it’s well worth the small spike in my electric bill.

Funny how nobody cared when they bashed Bush. Obama needs to put on his big boy pants and stop playing the race card .If he wants respect show us some backbone and make sound decisions .Stop pandering to party politics and run the damn country ..Both sides of the political spectrum need to stop worrying about any other business till we decide what to do in Afghanistan and Iraq .bottom line he may go down in history as the worst president in history !..OH so you dont think im just another republican ,i voted for Obama and have regretted it for months now !

It is clear from this Op ed from this liberal, that the major medias are not capable of understanding their own bias. They instead are running faster off the cliff of irrelevance by refusing to look objectively at anything. Especially when they put it in black in white everyday for all to see.

The old adage applies: Never wrestle with pigs. You will get dirty, and the pigs love it!

I do not believe anyone at Fox News merits mention by the Obama Administration. The best strategy is to mount a charm offensive that addresses matters of substance. Do as Reagan did–get control of the agenda for the day, every day.

And, because Fox News truly is the republican mouthpiece, as they demonstrated by talking about the content of Cheney’s speech BEFORE he gave it, then they are ripe to fall for spoofs and can be easily derailed.

Give Fox News a few head-fakes, send them off on crazy rants of no substance. This should be fairly easy to do in an age when fact-checking is passe.

You guys need to take a step back and listen to yourselves. Why are you always pointing your anger towards your fellow Americans rather than the gov’t? That’s EXACTLY what they want you to do, bicker back and forth and hate your neighbors.

The middle class standard of living has been going down strikingly the last 9 years, during which time we’ve had everything. Repubilican prez and Rep Congress, Rep prez and Dem Congress, Dem prez and Dem Congress, none of it works, why? Because these people have the same motivations, the almight dollar. No Republican cares about you, no Democrat cares about your family, none of them care about your standard of living.

There’s 2 things they care about: getting your money and getting what few of us to come out to vote for them.

Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Hannity, O’Reilly, Maddow, all ARE the mainstream media, they’re all spitting the same message. That message is that Democrats and Republicans are complete opposites, and as an American you either have to be with them or agaisnt them individually, which pits us against each other.

I mean just look at the way you guys talk to each other, come on, we’re better than that.

Fux”news”-Fear and Unbalanced Nooze by Moonbats for the Mentally Challenged!The same hateful 25%ers that backed Bush through every failure and still believe the Earth is flat!They have the same amount of viewers that watch Spongebob Squarepants ,only problem,Spongebob is more believable and his audience is smarter and more mature!

[...] The lucrative business of Obama-bashing By: Bernd Debusmann [...]

Posted by This guy acts like there was no Bush bashing &laquo; m4zp4ntssleep | Report as abusive

Oct 23, 2009

4:28 pm UTC

[...] The lucrative business of Obama-bashing By: Bernd Debusmann [...]

Posted by Does this &#8220;journalist&#8221; not remember the Bush years? &laquo; barry | Report as abusive

Oct 23, 2009

4:44 pm UTC

Domestic politics is the opiate of the masses. Wake up America. There is no real right or left. Policy is moved by the flavor of the day, not the values of the “Left” or the “Right”. A Snickers Bar to the first reader who can list the last time a seat was added to the House of Representatives. The current “War” between the executive office and the media is nothing but a side show. Wise up America.

Barrack Hussien Obama, like other precedent presidents, never submitted is birth certificate,Q: Is he a special privileged character.
Next, he has surrounded himself with Czars, You all know who they and and what they Socialist and Communist ideologies are, make me wonder what Mr. BHO can be a president who gets advise from these radical Czars. Fox has the courage to brink out all those Americans Radicals, where the Liberal Press act like a bunch of Ostriches, keeping there heads in the sand and only reports one sided news.
I am not a good write for i was not born in the USA,i am not a stupid individual,i know the difference between right and wrong. On both side of the aisle we have self served politicians, instead of working for the PEOPLE, they are in business for them self, and this is what i think
of what is going on i WASHINGTON.

What would you have the President do when for months on end the talking heads are taking vitriolic potshots at him verbally? Should he ignore it forever? It’s a dilemma for sure. I don’t think most people would want to hear endless abuse spewed out over TV and radio against them with no end in sight. And it demeans the person(s) who are spreading the hate and distrust.

It would appear that very few people here actually knows what “socialism”, “marxism”, “nazism” or “communism” really means. Did you actually pay attention in school?

Obama has socialistic tendencies and is pushing a socialistic policy agenda, but did you think he would not?

The sheer number of stupid right wing nuts surprised at Obama “destroying the nation as we know it” is incredible. He won the election. What did you think would happen? YOU didn’t vote for change. Everyone else did.

And if you think he was “destroying the country”, well, a lot of us thought Cheney was “destroying the country”, and quite literally so, not just in some abstract manner. Most of us think a little “socialism” is a good thing because, frankly, even YOU don’t feel like paying a la carte for police protection or fire protection or Medicare …

The difference between Libs bashing Bush and the Neocons bashing Obama… the Libs attacked Bush’s terrible policies; Neocons attack Obama personally. I don’t remember any Libs saying Bush hates black Americans, or that they wanted him to fail the second after he won the election. Nor did they attack the dubious manner in which he won the 2000 election (Michael Moore is a filmmaker, not a syndicated news program/channel). Fact is Neocons never gave Obama a chance, and are showing racist and hateful sentiment against this administration. I think people are fed up with this kinda garbage, and while Obama’s WH may not be the best thing since sliced bread, I don’t believe you’ll find many willing to fact Neocon loudmouths that wear the Rush or Glenn Beck seal on their back.

Sure Limbaugh got higher ratings from his fans, who figure Obama is the antiChrist, now listening to him every day instead of every other day. That empowered Rush to start pushing around the entire Republican Party, to the point of having Representatives and Senators apologizing when they described him as “just an entertainer”. That did not pass unnoticed in the rest of America, where most people despise Limbaugh and his bullyboy tactics. Women, especially, are turned off by the guy, which helps the Dems notch up a serious gender gap.

Same thing with Fox: their ratings may be up, but who cares if they get 4 million viewers instead of 3 million? That’s still a tiny fraction of the total electorate, and the Republican Party pandering to rabid Fox-sponsored teabaggers merely makes it unappetizing to the broad center. Every poll shows a consistent decline in people self-identifying as Republican, and in approval ratings for Congressional Republicans in general and the party leadership in particular.

The Dems have rigged up a nice little piece of political jiu-jitsu, where encouraging the opposition’s radical elements also alienates them from most voters. Someone was reading Art Of War into the wee hours on this one, I suspect.

So what does it matter if Neocons are saying that Obama is a socialist, or that his policies are incompetent? At least these claims have a basis, some more tenuous then others.

The true issue is the Obama supporters who claim that everyone who attacks Obama is either racist or bitter. Even in this forum, many have taken that approach.

It must be so comforting to be able to say “Nothing you say is worth answering, because you are a racist”. It will always allow you to win a debate, at least when you know the audience is on your side.

Obama’s mistake is that he lumps all political attacks with the Neocons, and wants to create the impression that no criticism against him is of any relevance. This will have bad implications for him, if his approval rating continues to fall.

Tne mainline news media consistently get it dead wrong: FOX News is not just the voice of the “opposition”; they are the voice of the majority of American voters. It is not Obama they are bashing, it is his socialist policies.

The demographics of the FOX prime time viewership shows a healthy (and growing) mix of right, center, and left viewers — and even a few far left liberals. THAT is why the FOX viewership is way up. A broad mix of Americans see their news coverage as “fair and balanced.” A dwindling number of Americans see the competing news media coverage as “fair and balanced.”

America is poorly served by the newspaper and TV media these days — and outside of New York City and Los Angeles, the “man on the street” knows this. He knows he can get better-balanced news coverage from FOX (along with dissenting views and debate) on ALL important stories. Stories which are “uncomfortable” to Obama are not EXCLUDED from coverage, as they are in the mainline media.

We happen to have as our President these days a guy who campaigned as a moderate Democrat, but, once in power, has chosen to operate a decidedly far-left, socialist administration. Obama’s policies and appointees are decidedly far left and socialist. FOX accurately follows this development, and the majority of mainstream America seems to applaud them for doing so.

There is precious little support from mainstream America for the Obama program of massive socialist change. The polls show this very vividly, with the approval ratings for Congress, the Stimulus package, the Health Care packages, and the “Cap and Trade” package all going south.

SAGE ADVICE for Obama, Pelosi, and Reid: When you find yourself in a deep hole, it’s best to stop digging.

Is the head dead yet? Don Henley has a song about this that came out around 1982. “If it bleeds it leads. If it thinks it stinks”. Just as extras are screaming helplessly in hollywood horror flicks, we are advised not to watch TV movies with our kids by another news network because it is assumed that parental stupidity might scare them.

First, you choose the poll with the questionable results comparred to other polls, and one with a history of scewing its sample strongly in favor of Democrats. Then you look at the wrong question. To the extent that Fox’s opinion shows have a bias, it’s anti-liberal/progressive and pro-conservative/libertarian. Many conservative/libertarians have dissociated themselves from the party of Lindsay Graham, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe. The poll shows that only 23% of the respondents consider themselves “liberal” while 38% are “conservative.”

Fox News is like watching several old-time circus trains colliding with each other and then catching fire. You may try to look away, but it takes real strength of character not to watch.

Fox News supplies talking points to ignorant, needy people too stupid to observe cellular phone etiquette and who are deeply unsure what to say about anything, yet cursed with the compulsion to say something all the time anyway. These jackasses get all their talking points from Fox News.

And Fox “news” is not only “fair” and “balanced” – it’s “free” right?

More like, lucrative. Making a masochistic audience wade through scads of lurid commercials for inane consumer products on a quest for snippets of random stuff to say and shock other stupid people with *easily* covers the cost of delivery, and quickly turns what some may call a Nasty Profit.

Like Barnum passing out flyers for snake oil to born-again suckers, Fox News revenue derives from driving commercial dogma into the wasted brain-mass of a stupefied audience.

Fox News keeps ugly people off the streets and gives them something to do while masticating in social isolation. In that sense, it may be seen as performing a social service.

Fox News dignifies gossip and chatter like no other TV channel in history by heating up the buttons on randomly-exhumed dead issues until they radiate. It’s a miracle of reanimation. Birthers and Teabaggers, gather round!

Fox News is screwing up the language quite a bit. But, you know, there have been interesting precedents (e.g. Victor Klemperer’s LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii) so… they boldly go on doing it anyway.

Fox News recycles diligently by packaging waste matter as “news”. This may also be seen as egalitarian positivism in the sense that old bull excrement which would never make it as conversational matter between evolved, intelligent human beings is given a chance on Fox just like real news – and, lo and behold, some of it flies!

Fox News is efficient. Fox News never bothered to “bash” Bush because – obviously – it would have been a waste of time. Throughout his political career, W managed to make a complete and utter ass of himself without intervention on the part of Fox News. So they backed off. Obama seems to need more assistance in this respect. Or, disrespect.

Fox News actually gives viewers an opportunity to think… a single thought consisting mainly of, “It sort of looks like TV News but I can’t believe they actually get away with calling it that.”

Fox News also allows untalented people to feel.

Apparently what they feel is this: “If Fox News can make money peddling this crap, there is hope for me in today’s mega-troubled employment market. One can be as bizarrely greedy, medicated, undignified and useless a blowhard as any of those guys on Fox News and still hold down a job? Wow. Maybe like them, I can get a job holding logic and civility in contempt. No, really, I’m ready to say or do anything for money, anytime. I’d even break the law for a paycheck. And I like wearing suits. So where should I send my resumé?”

For such people, clearly, it’s a career toss-up between Fox News and Goldman Sachs.

Fox News has, however, been known to miss the point on occasion. For example, anyone who thinks that Corporate America doesn’t have its fist inserted every bit as deeply inside Obama as it did inside The Bush Puppets – “because he’s black” – is clearly in need of racial enlightenment as well as a crash course in crony capitalism. But Fox just won’t go there.

I was brought up to believe that courage and integrity are important characteristics in any aspect of news reporting. At Fox News these assets are blatantly and utterly absent. And it gets worse. Fox News marginalizes and sneers at any vestige of dignity in the free-thinking sociosphere.

Fox News goes far beyond “bashing Obama” – Obama’s a big lad who volunteered for the job and should be able to look out for himself – well, maybe he can, maybe he can’t. He hasn’t exactly lived up to his own hype at this point. Not on any issue of any importance at all. Fox should really let the American people do their own bashing of Obama.

But no, Fox News doesn’t come equipped with a brake pedal. Fox News can’t stop bashing its entire audience. That’s what happens with all the hyperbole, synthetic partiotism and sputtering indignation. Bash bash bashing all the time eventually leads to brain damage on a massive scale.

Fox News isn’t just the #1 Enemy of Obama, but also The Enemy of The People.

Fox News is like CNN on PCP. For meth-heads who can no longer afford real meth any more in today’s economy, Fox News is the ultimate Plug-In Drug.

So let me get this straight. If you’re liberal (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NPR) you are main stream and balanced, but if you are conservative (Fox) you are a wacky right wing extremist. OK, I think I have it now. A five to one advantage for the safe (liberal) guys isn’t enough?

Middle America better step up to the plate and say something. As a self-defined “Centrist”, I am sick and tired of “cry-baby politics”.

I have supported both Republican and Democrat parties in the past (I am a registered Independant). The partican politics that are being played by BOTH parties is abhorent!

I was a McCain supporter until he picked his running mate. I felt that either Carly Fiorina or Meg Whitman would have been a better choice. Both were his advisors during the election. Afterwards, I listened to both parties, and eventually decided that Obama would be the better choice for our country (note, I said better, not best).

I still feel that way. I’m not happy where we are, but we took a long 8+ years to get here. Barack Obama is not the cause, and from what I see, he is trying his best.

While NOT a fan of the Clinton Administration (I voted for Dole), the Republicans KNEW that Health Care was a BIG Democrat issue. They had EIGHT YEARS to bring something to the table, and did not. NOW they’re coming out of the woodwork with “better ideas”.

HEY REPUBLICANS: Too Late! I’m giving Obama at LEAST 4 years to prove himself. Hopefully, he can unwind the HORRIBLE STATE that the Bush Administration got us into. (I’d be happy if he could improve things by 10% from where George W. left us…)

Fox and a few other individuals are loudly proclaiming the emperor has no clothes. The big 5 networks are trying to tell us he indeed has some- it’s just that the unwashed masses are too ignorant to see them. If the Big 5 networks started telling the truth, started giving unbiased factual coverage, they might gain viewers again.

The problem is that the Obama Administration is addicted to having its posterior kissed by the media. The reason for the shift in the ratings is that the grownups have awakened from thier long nap of last November and realize that thier children voted in a Chicago Communist with no management skills, who surrounds himself with butt boys and girls who are stupid enough to believe that this crap he proposes will work. Next Nov. there will be a change………BET ON IT!

If you want news, there are many sources from which to piece together a decent understanding of world events. If you don’t want to bother with that and would rather have a source of factually challenged fuel for your ire toward democrats (and lots of other people), then Fox is your place.

They don’t compete for the same viewers. It’s a completely different market. Is there anyone who honestly thinks that if Fox went off the air, the Fox viewers would suddenly tune in to PBS? No. PBS is for news. Fox is for rudely yelling factual misrepresentations (as best I can tell) and allowing people an excuse to hold on to irrational beliefs.

Mr. Obama has good reason to be afraid of Fox News and Cable since this is the only news source doing investigative journalism of the Obama administration. Having sampled Fox for a number of years I am perfectly aware that claims partisans make and repeat against it are false. So is anybody else not blinded by partisanship. Anyone wishing to have credible news reporting will find Fox the only game in town. All the other sources are simply carrying water for Democrats and have betrayed basic journalistic responsibilities for ideology. Fox is not the villain but the knight in shining armor. Other media and their journalists should be ashamed of themselves for falling behind and abandoning their standards to push ideology.

Let’s get one thing straight: 2.5 million viewers is not a lot of viewers. There are over 300 million American’s. Do the math. What is the percentage of viewers at Fox as it related to the entire American population? Not even 1%. Fox news is not news. It’s a channel for Obama haters. It’s a channel for right wing extremist. That’s all it is. That’s all it ever will be. Now that the Obama administration has called then out for what they truly are, I say just ignore Fox all together. Let Fox and there audience live in there own world. The other 297 million will live in our world..the real world that is.

surely rupert doesn’t believe that ALL the people checking out this bonehead’s progamming are FANS!?! it’s worth a Laugh to see their Spin Doctors get hold of a perfectly good story ,give it their **SPIN and it’s nowhere near the same story it started out as.DISINFORMATION. False Prophets. only as newsworthy as one chooses to believe.it’s the DUMBING DOWN OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. SUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!

it wasnt so long ago that I wanted Fox News gone. Now I catch a glimpse now and then, for whatever reason, they’ve become a voice of dissenters.
Let’s keep it real though, this isnt about left and right, its about whats best for the citizens of this Country. We’re all in this together, if they divide us, we fall.

I am a registered Independant. Bush didn’t get us into this mess. It all starts with law. It took more than 8 years to get where we are today. People love to blame Bush for the economy. He didn’t do a good job economically, but if we had a more liberal leader, the situation would be worse.

Barney Frank is one of the people responsible. He pushed banks to do what they hate to do…take undue risk. This then allowed Wall Street to do what it does…Make money while abiding by the law.

Obama is trying his best to radically change the country that we live in. He speaks without thinking. So many promises were made by him that he hasn’t kept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UErR7i2on W0

This country is about to go places that only a couple of years ago would have been insane to think about. I am an Independant that loves Free Markets, Conservative Spending, Liberal Social Policies (except for Abortion). We need to instill the value of hard work and individual success and responsibility. The moment that risk takers and hard workers that have been fortunate enough to make money with their efforts are punished, look out because the economy will drop like a ton of bricks.

I, like most of you want a unified country that we can all be proud of. Lets think, read and do what is best. What hasn’t worked in the past? What has? Lets do what’s best for all of us. Handouts are never good. We have to be responsible for ourselves and given the choice to help others, not the requirement. Smaller government puts the power in the people’s hands. I don’t trust any of these clowns in Washington.

It is unbelievable that Beck’s ratings have skyrocketed after his accusing of President Obama as a racist. What is wrong with America? Why have some people descended to such low levels? The right wing, although a minority, has become increasingly aggressive and intolerant. Are we heading towards civil war?

I agree with the Obama administration that Fox News is not news. In fact I believe folk like Glenn Beck ought to be locked up. But we have all learned again the lesson that bashing them directly only energizes their misguided supporters. It is time to recognize a failed strategy, and simply take the high road only, which was a signature strength of Obama in the early days.

“a majority of Americans are coming out in support of the president, according to that poll”
Your article is false the Majority of Americans are AGAINST Government ran Health Care!..Wake up and tell the truth

As disgusting as the agenda for these “Hate” shows are on Fox, only 2% of the US population are watching! Hardly represents a serious threat to civilization. With luck, real people have more positive things to focus on in their lives~!

Listen to msnbc and fox news. Chris Matthews (et al) just love anything liberal (esp Obama) to death. Obvious. Hannity and Beck are conservative and don’t swoon over Obama or liberal policies. Obvious. I don’t believe there is ANY true journalist out there. The difference I see is that the conservatives WANT us to know how much this will really cost and the liberals don’t care what that cost is so they never report on the cost. I want to see Chris and Glenn on the same show for a debate on health care costs. I don’t think Chris has read the bill but I do believe Glenn has. If I’m wrong then it would be a great debate. I have tried to watch Chris M at times but he is so far left I just can’t. I am and do believe in fiscal conservatism so I can’t support bigger government. Bush spent too much but what Obama is spending makes GW look like Scrooge. I think it’s time to send all of Congress packing.

This whole thing boils down to the fact that the citizens go unrepresented in the media. Our media outlets are not publicly owned. And so they are in business for ratings and profit just like any other entertainment programing. We don’t have news any more. It’s all sound bites, statistics, poll results, opinions and shock drama.

Until we actually have a free media that serves the interests of the citizen we won’t get real news. C-Span is about the only news service that is open about what’s going on in Washington. But this is limiting only because C-Span is the only service of it’s kind that I’m aware of in this country.

We have no honest journalism on main stream media any more. So I get my news on the internet. You get better news there. Because self styled reporters aren’t afraid to investigate. And with the internet you can check your facts a bit more easily. Unfortunately many don’t have the skills of journalists. But it’s worth the trouble when you compare internet news to fox and all that other rubbish.

Bashing is easy. Any fool can destroy something. Being a good reporter or a respected news agency takes work. I see work being put into shiny graphics and catchy sound bites. But I don’t see nearly so much effort and skill being placed on finding out and delivering the facts (drama free).

It’s not just Obama bashing. “News” is nothing more than entertainment. We like our news to single out points of conflict and sources of malcontent. But rarely if ever is the opposite true.

America news media, especially TV, is an embarrassment to the world. I agree, it’s more about increasing ratings through sensationalism and sound bites instead of reporting significant events in detail. Who cares about balloon boy, Scientology and the irrelevant Levi? American broadcasters need to tune into BBC to understand quality reporting and honor a “back to basics” reporting without taking political sides.
Don F

“If serious news was separated from entertainment and made democratic this problem would not exist because WE would decide, democratically, what is news.”

It was probably unintentional, but your statement seems a bit too much like “Nineteen Eighty-Four” for my liking.

-This just in. The American public have voted, by an overwhelming 5%, that Obama is beyond criticism. From this moment all American mass media is state owned and is no longer allowed to criticise the president or otherwise question the ability of the Democratic Party…-

Fox is a cult, the same brainwashing tactics used throughout history to misinform the populous. Their first step is to discredit any opposing view. Lamstream Media, fair and balanced, no spin zone, you get the picture. Murdock is up to the same instigating the world over, and is a bigger threat to democracy than all the terrorists.

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World Affairs columnist Bernd Debusmann has reported from close to 100 countries, on stories from the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the seizure of American hostages in Iran to Lebanon’s descent into anarchy and the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. Debusmann was shot twice in the course of his work -- once covering a night battle in the center of Beirut and once in an assassination attempt prompted by his reporting.